Chap. LIX. TOWN AND MARKET OF SAY. 
245 
the intercourse between the various quarters, and 
greatly contributing to its unhealthiness. There can 
be no doubt that, in seasons when the river reaches an 
unusual height, the whole town is under water, the 
inhabitants being obliged to seek safety beyond the 
borders of the valley. 
There is a market held every day in the eastern 
part, not far from the bank of the river. Poor as it 
is, it is of some importance in the present state of 
the country : and hence the town has a great name 
as a market-place among the inhabitants of Western 
Sudan, a great many of whom here supply their want 
of native manufactures, especially of the common 
clothing for males and females, as the art of weav- 
ing and dyeing is greatly neglected in this quarter, 
cotton being cultivated only to a very small extent. 
But the place was most miserably supplied with 
provisions, there being no store of grain whatever. 
Everything necessary was brought day by day from 
the town called Smder — the same place which I 
have mentioned as being situated about eighty miles 
higher up the river. I was greatly surprised at not 
finding here even a vestige of the cultivation of rice, 
although -a large tract of ground on this low island, 
which, towards the rainy season becomes partly in- 
undated, is particularly suited to that branch of cul- 
tivation. Not even onions are grown in the place ; 
but, fortunately, I had been informed of the circum- 
stance beforehand, and had provided myself with a 
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