34 
SALACOI LA. 
pastoral Foulahs, who came to the river's side to sell us their 
milk ; they wanted to barter it for tobacco^ of which we had 
none to give them; we were, consequently, obliged to go 
without their milk, for they would not accept cowries in 
exchange. 
When, by the overflowing of the river, all the marshes 
are covered to the depth of eight or ten feet, this immense 
plain forms a vast lake; at those periods, the tribes of pastoral 
Foulahs, who have their huts in the neighbourhood, are 
obliged to retire into the interior, where the pasture is 
abundant during the rainy season. Continuing our course 
till ten o'clock in the morning, we found the river bend to 
the north ; at this part, a very wide ann, branching from the 
river, extended to the east. 
About eleven we passed Salacoila, a village of the 
wandering Foulahs, situated on the right bank; they build 
their huts on the quicksands. I went ashore with a negro to 
purchase a little milk, and saw some of the women, who were 
pretty well dressed; they would not take our cowries, but 
wanted millet or rice in exchange. They seemed very gentle 
in their manners; I visited their little habitations ; they are 
of a circular form, made of a very pretty kind of matting, 
manufactured in the place; this is laid on poles which are 
fixed in the ground, and which, being flexible, curve inward at 
top ; seven or eight of these huts were surrounded by 
quickset hedges of celane, a euphorbious plant which grows 
spontaneously on the sandy shores of the Senegal ; these huts 
were very neat, being cleanly swept in the inside : they had 
no other furniture than a few mats spread on the ground, by 
way of bedding : some calabashes, wooden plates and skins 
for holding milk, were the only domestic utensils 1 saw. 
These Foulahs have the same cast of features and the same 
resemblance one to another as those in the neighbourhood of 
the Senegal; they, however, speak another language, though 
they perfectly understand that which is spoken at Timbuctoo. 
