206 TRAVELS IN THE 
comply with ; but I told them I had no objection to eat eggs, 
provided they would bring me eggs to eat. My landlord im- 
mediately brought me seven hen's eggs, and was much sur- 
prised to find that I could not eat them raw ; for it seems to 
be a prevalent opinion among the inhabitants of the interior, 
that Europeans subsist almost entirely on this diet. When I 
had succeeded, in persuading my landlord that this opinion 
was without foundation, and that I would gladly partake of 
any victuals which he might think proper to send me; he 
ordered a sheep to be killed, and part of it to be dressed for my 
supper. About midnight, when the Moors had left me, he 
paid me a visit, and with much earnestness, desired me to 
write him a saphie. " If a Moor's saphie is good, (said this 
hospitable old man), a white man's must needs be better." I 
readily furnished him with one, possessed of all the virtues I 
could concentrate ; for it contained the Lord's prayer. The pen 
with which it was written was made of a reed ; a little char- 
coal and gum-water made very tolerable ink, and a thin board 
answered the purpose of paper. 
July 25th. Early in the morning, before the Moors were 
assembled, I departed from Sansanding, and slept the ensuing 
night at a small town called Sibili ; from whence, on the day 
following, I reached Nyara, a large town at some distance 
from the river, where I halted the 27th, to have my clothes 
washed, and recruit my horse. The Dooty there has a very 
commodious house, flat roofed, and two stories high. He 
shewed me some gunpowder of his own manufacturing : and 
