THE SCHOOL. 281 



swords suspended on their right shoulders by a crimson 

 sash. They are the unmixed descendants of the forest 

 savage ; their faces are those of pure negroes, but 

 the expression is not the same. Their manners are 

 grave and composed ; they salute one another, saying 

 in the Arabic, " Peace be with you." The palaver 

 house or town-hall is also the mosque ; the parliamen- 

 tary debates and the law trials, which are there held, 

 have all the dignity of a religious service : they are 

 opened with prayer, and the name of the Creator is 

 often solemnly invoked by the orator or advocate, while 

 all the elders touch their foreheads with their hands, 

 and murmur in response, Amina ! Amina ! (Amen, 

 Amen). The town is pervaded by a bovine smell, 

 sweet to the nostrils of those who have travelled long 

 in the beefless lands of the people of the forest. Sounds 

 of industry may also be heard ; not only the clinking 

 of the blacksmith's hammer, but also the rattling of 

 the loom, the thumping of the cloth maker, and the 

 song of the cordwainer, as he sits cross-legged making 

 saddles or shoes. The women, with bow, and distaff, and 

 spindle, are turning the soft tree wool into thread ; 

 the work in the fields is done by slaves. The elders 

 smoke or take snuff in their verandahs, and sometimes 

 study a page of the Koran. When the evening draws 

 on there is no sound of flute and drum. A bonfire of 

 brushwood is lighted in the market place, and the boys 

 of the town collect around it with wooden boards in 

 their hands, and bawl their lessons, swaying their 

 bodies to and fro, by which movement they imagine 

 the memory is assisted. Then rises a long loud har- 

 monious cry, " Come to prayers, come to prayers. 

 Come to security. God is great. He liveth and he 

 dieth not. Come to prayers. thou Bountiful ! " 



