THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, 561 



fubfequcnt editions of their work all that had been advan- 

 ced againll the negroes on this head, which they had 

 before drawn from the herd of prejudiced and ignorant 

 compilers, ftrangers to the manners and language of the 

 people they were diflionouring by their defcriptions, after 

 having before abufed them by their tyranny. 



The Shangalla have no bread : No grain or pulfe will 

 grow in the country. Some of the Arabs, fettled at Ras 

 el Feel, have attempted to make bread of the feed of the 

 Guinea grafs; but it is very tailelefs and bad, of the colour 

 of cow-dung, and quickly producing worms. 



They are all archers from their infancy. Their bows are 

 all made of wild fennel, thicker than the -common propor- 

 tion, and about feven feet long, and very elaftic. The chil- 

 dren ufe the fame bow in their infancy that they do when 

 grown up ; and are, by reafon of its length, for the firft 

 years, obliged to hold it parallel, inllead of perpendicular 

 to the horizon. Their arrows are full a yard and a half 

 long, with large heads of very bad iron rudely fliapcd. 

 They are, indeed, the only favages I ever knew that take 

 no pains in the make or ornament of this v/eapon. A branch 

 of a palm, llript from the tree and made flraight, becomes 

 an arrow; and none of themhave wings to them. They 

 have this remarkable cullom, which is a religious one, that 

 they fix upon their bows a ring, or thong, of the fkin of 

 every beaft llain by it, while it is yet raw, from the lizard 

 iind fcrpcnt up to the elephant. This gradually (lifFens the 

 bow, till, being all covered over, it can be no longer bent 

 ■even by its mailer. That bow is then hung upon a tree, 

 ■Vol. il, 4 S and 



