90 
THE GUM HARVEST. 
On the 13th the slaves destined to this labour set off 
under the direction of several marabouts ; it was not till 
some days afterwards that I learnt from my host's wife the 
particulars which I am now about to relate. It has been 
believed^ but without foundation, that there were forests of 
gum-bearing trees in the desert ; travellers have fallen into 
this error from the inaccurate accounts of the Moors, who, 
to do honour to their country, always profess that every thing 
is to be found there in the greatest abundance. The acacia 
which furnishes gum grows singly in all the elevated parts 
of the desert, never on argillaceous or alluvial soil, but on 
dry sandy ground; it is very rare on the banks of the Sene- 
gal. The tree is not the same with the mimosa gummifera 
of the botanists, which I had seen in our settlements its 
leaves are regularly pinnated the folioles are broader, 
thicker, and of a darker green ; in its shape and appearance 
it more nearly resembles the acacia cultivated in France. 
The wells which have been dug in the interior, where 
the operation of collecting the gum is carried on, have given 
their name to the neighbourhood, and such has been the 
origin of the names that have been given to the fictitious 
gum forests. Near these wells the marabouts take up their 
abode, and the slaves cut straw to make huts ; a single ma- 
rabout superintends the slaves of his whole family, or of 
several of his friends 5 and he assembles them all, sometimes 
to the number of forty or fifty under the same hut. Every 
marabout sends as many slaves as he can spare, and they 
are sometimes joined by a few wretched zenagues. The 
superintending marabout takes with him two cows, and 
carries a bag of millet for his food. 
When a zenague joins the slaves, he applies to the ma- 
rabout, who gives him a cow and what else is needful, and at 
the end of the gum-harvest he receives half of what he has 
collected. The zenagues are only permitted to gather upon 
this condition ; if they were to attempt it on their own ac- 
