^46 MR park's first journey. 
sandals, and the explanation was supplied by the 
bearer, " that, until the king of Kaarta had worn 
" out these in his flight, he should not be secure 
" from the arrows of Bambara." Rude nations 
generally supply the deficiency of their language 
by the energy of their gestures, and the slowness 
of their capacity by the vivacity of their images and 
significant actions. The hieroglyphical message of 
the Scythian ambassador, who, without speaking a 
word, presented to Darius a bird, a frog, a mouse, 
and five arrows, is well known. Herodotus men- 
tions that the same Darius sent notice to the Ioni- 
an Greeks, that, if they continued their depreda- 
tions in Asia, he would treat them as pines, or ex- 
terminate them, for no shoots rise from the pine 
when it is cut down. The chief of the Narrag- 
hanset Indians, to express his mortal enmity to the 
first settlers of New England, sent them a rattle- 
snake's skin stuffed full of arrows, to which the 
English replied very intelligibly, by returning the 
same skin stuffed with powder and bullets. Upon 
receiving a similar message from the king of Bam- 
bara, the Kaartan prince, after consulting with his 
chief men, returned a similar defiance, and, imme- 
diately issuing proclamations, called upon his 
friends to join him, permitting all who were un- 
armed, or afraid of the war, to retire into any of 
the adjoining states, whence they should always be 
welcome to return, if they observed a rigid neutra- 
