22 
GANDON AND N'GHIEZ. 
On the morning of the 4th we pursued our journey. 
My fellow-travellers met with a little incident which delayed 
our progress : a sheep^ destined for the celebration of the 
festival of the Tabasky*^ escaped from the negress who was 
driving it; we were obliged to run after the animal, but after 
several useless attempts to catch it, we continued our route. 
At ten in the morning we arrived at Gandon, a village only 
one league E. J S.E. from Leybar. A most delightful 
country presented itself to our view. I saw many fields of 
cotton, which the negroes cultivate with success; indigo 
grows there without culture ; there is but little millet in the 
environs of the village. 
We sat down under a great tree, where travellers 
usually rest themselves till some one comes to offer them 
hospitality : on that day there was a great number of them, 
who took me for a Moor, because I wore the Moorish dress; 
but, being undeceived by my guides, who told them that 1 
was about to become a convert to Islamism, they congratu- 
lated me upon my intention. 
My companions, who were much grieved at the loss 
of their sheep, went back to look for it. I rested myself 
for about an hour, and then proceeding eastward, set out 
alone for N'ghiez. Between these two villages the traveller 
who pays any attention to the beauties of nature is enchanted 
by the view of the groups of verdure scattered over the plain. 
They consist of mimosas, the thick branches of which sup- 
port the slender and flexible stems of asclepias and of dif- 
ferent species of cynanchum, which, after climbing to their 
tops, droop down in garlands, and by the diversity of their 
flowers produce an admirable effect. They frequently meet 
with other plants; their stems mutually entwine, and their 
numerous branches become so closely united and twisted 
* The Tabasky is the last day of the Ramadan : it may be likened to our 
Easter Sunday. 
