414 mr Browne's journey. 
their transactions, and are much more cleanly 
than the nations by whom they are surround- 
ed. They pass their rivers in canoes, which 
are formed from the trunks of large trees. The 
smallest injuries are punished by condemning to 
slavery the young relations of the offender. If 
the footsteps of a person be observed among the 
corn of another, or if one person has neglected to 
execute the commission of another, which he had 
undertaken, a palaver is held before the chief 
men, and the son, daughter, nephew, or niece, of 
the offender, forfeited to him who has sustained 
the injury. As death is never regarded as a ne- 
cessary event, whenever a person dies, his death 
is supposed to have been occasioned by violence 
or witchcraft, and his neighbours are obliged to 
drink a species of red water for their justification. 
These customs, with the feuds and quarrels of rude 
tribes, supply the slave-markets of Darfur and 
Bergoo. The chief article of commerce in Dar- 
kulla is salt, 12 pounds of which constitute the 
value of a young male slave, and 15 that of a fe- 
male. The Pimento tree abounds in this coun- 
try. In the mountainous district to the south of 
Darfur, various kinds of metals are found, and 
the native tribes are acquainted with the method 
of extracting both iron and copper from their ores. 
The copper is of the finest quality, in its pale blue 
colour resembling that of China, and probably 
containing a considerable quantity of zinc. The 
