]92 CAILLIE. 



a want of that cleanliness which, in Kankan, had fonned a 

 pleasant feature. Beyond Ouassoulo is the town of Sam- 

 batikila, the inhabitants of which live in voluntary poverty, 

 bestowing little trouble on the cultivation of the ground, 

 which they allege distracts them from the study of the 

 Koran, — a statement justly derided as only a specious cloak 

 for their indolence. The traveller came next to Time, 

 situated in a favourable territory, fertile, and profusely irri- 

 gated, yielding abundantly various fruits and vegetables, 

 which are scarce or unknovvTi on the coast. Among these 

 were the shea or butter-tree, and the koUa or goora nuts, 

 which are esteemed a great luxury, and conveyed in large 

 quantities into the interior. The victuals, however, were 

 found insipid, owing to the almost total absence of salt, 

 which can only be procured by the wealthy ; nor could our 

 traveller at all relish the plan of seasoning food by a sauce 

 extracted from the flesh of mice. 



He was detained at Time upwards of five months by a 

 severe illness. On the 9th January, 1828, he joined a ca- 

 ravan for Jenne, and proceeded through a district generally- 

 well cultivated, and containing a number of considerable 

 villages, till, on the 10th March, he came in view, near the 

 village of Cougalia, of the Niger, which appeared to him 

 only about 600 feet broad, but very deep, flowing gently 

 through a flat and open country. The caravan sailed across 

 it, and, after travelling six miles, and passing, by rather 

 deep fords, two smaller branches, they entered the city of 

 Jenne, one of the most celebrated and important in Central 

 Africa, and which had never before been visited by an Euro- 

 pean traveller. 



Jenne is described by Caillie as situated at the eastern ex- 

 tremity of a branch of the Niger separating below Sego 

 from the main current, with which, after passing the former 

 city, it again unites. This delineation seems doubtful. 

 Such a branch, had it existed, would probably have been 

 observed by Park, who, on the contrary, describes the river 

 which passes by Jenne as a separate stream, tributary to the 

 Niger. The Arabic term, translated by us island^ is of very 

 vague import, being familiarly applied to a peninsula, and 

 even to a space wholly or partially enclosed by river- 

 branches. The country around, as far as the eye could 

 reach, formed only a naked marshy plain, interspersed with 



