616- THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION. 
Soon after their departure from Rio Nunez, they 
found that a considerable intercourse subsisted be- 
tween the interior districts and the higher parts of 
the river, and often met .500 or COO Foulahs in a 
day, carrying on their backs large burdens of rice 
and ivory to exchange for salt, which, in the inte- 
rior countries, is the greatest of all luxuries, both 
on account of its scarcity, and the painful longing 
that the constant use of vegetable food produces. 
A child will suck a piece of rock-salt as if it were 
sugar, and a rich man is described by the phrase 
he eats salt "with his victuals. In the towns, 
which they met in succession at the distance of 
six, eight, or ten miles, they were entertained 
with hospitality, and conducted in safety from 
one place to another with their baggage. Laby, 
which is 2tr miles in circumference, and con- 
tains, as they imagined, about 5000 people, lies 
almost due east from Kocundy, at the distance of 
200 miles. Here they inquired concerning Cassina 
and Tombuctoo. The route to Cassina was repre- 
sented as extremely dangerous, but a free communi- 
cation was said to subsist between Laby and Tom- 
buctoo, though a journey of four months distant from 
each other. The route was described as proceed- 
ing through six intervening kingdoms, the names 
of which were Beliah, Bowria, Manda, Segoo, Su- 
sundoo, and Genah, of which the last was said to be 
the most rich. Segoo is the Sego of Mr Park, the 
