234 TRAVELS IN THE 
visit, and observing that I had not found a lodging, invited me 
to take part of his supper, which he had brought to the door of 
his hut ; for, being a guest himself, he could not, without his 
landlord's consent, invite me to come in. After this, I slept 
upon some wet grass in the corner of a court. My horse 
fared still worse than myself ; the corn I had purchased being all 
expended, and I could not procure a supply. 
Aug. 20. I passed the town of Jaba, and stopped a few mi- 
nutes at a village called Somino, where I begged and obtained 
some coarse food, which the natives prepare from the husks of 
corn, and call Boo. About two o'clock I came to the village 
of Sooha, and endeavoured to purchase some corn from the 
Dooty, who was sitting by the gate ; but without success. I 
then requested a little food by way of charity, but was told he 
had none to spare. Whilst I was examining the countenance 
of this inhospitable old man, and endeavouring to find out the 
cause of the sullen discontent, which was visible in his eye, he 
called to a slave who was working in the corn-field at a little 
distance, and ordered him to bring his hoe along with him. 
The Dooty then told him to dig a hole in the ground ; point- 
ing to a spot at no great distance. The slave, with his hoe, 
began to dig a pit in the earth ; and the Dooty, who appeared 
to be a man of a very fretful disposition, kept muttering and 
talking to himself until the pit was almost finished, when he 
repeatedly pronounced the words dankatoo (good for nothing) ; 
jankra lemen (a real plague) ; which expressions I thought 
could be applied to nobody but myself ; and as the pit had 
very much the appearance of a grave, I thought it prudent to 
