THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, 5 6t 



fubfequent editions of their work all that had been advan- 

 ced againft the negroes on this head, which they had 

 before drawn from the herd of prejudiced and ignorant 

 compilers, Grangers to the manners and language of the 

 people they were difhonouring 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 taftelefs 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, inilead of perpendicular 

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

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

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

 no pains in the make or ornament of this weapon. A branch 

 of a palm, ftript from the tree and made ftraight, becomes 

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

 liave this remarkable cuftom, which is a religious one, that 

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

 •every beafl ilain by ir, while it is yet raw, from the lizard 

 .and ferpent up to the elephant. This gradually ftifTens 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.- II. 4 B and 



