THE MARABOUTS. 
101 
to comply with the demands of his insatiable masters in this. 
Those marabouts who have no slaves to collect gum, being 
far too lazy to work for themselves, would be without clothes 
if the zenagues did not supply them with the means of pro- 
curing them. In the same way they obtain bags of butter to 
sell at the markets for Guinea cloth. It may be thought, 
perhaps, that the marabouts are grateful, and know how to 
appreciate the sacrifices which the zenague makes to please 
them ; but ingratitude is one of their vices, and scarcely have 
they obtained what they want before they slander their 
benefactors, curse them, and devote them to eternal fire. 
Some of these wretches, who have no other means of 
subsistence, settle amongst the zenagues to instruct their 
children : besides their food, they receive in payment sheep, 
butter, tanned hides, and stulf for tent-covering. 
The marabouts are not more susceptible of friendship 
than of gratitude. I told Mohammed-Sidy-Moctar one day, 
that I should like to go and see his son-in-law; he tried 
immediately to dissuade me. " He is a good-for-nothing 
fellow,'^ said he ; " he ought to have given you an ox the first 
time you went to his tent, and he only gave you a coussabe ; 
he never gives 7ne any thing ; he does not like me." I asked 
him if he liked Hamet-Dou, who had made him presents 
before my eyes : " Oh," said he, " Hamet-Dou is rich." 
I recollect, that when I was leaving the camp, I gave a 
pagne to a slave who had taken care to supply me with 
sangleh ; my marabout, who was near, took the pagne from 
her, and gave her a severe scolding. I insisted that the 
pagne should be returned, but he would not hear of it, and 
he scolded me in my turn, and told me that a marabout 
ought never to give, but always to receive. At last he 
handed the pagne to my guide, and bade him put it with the 
rest of my goods. This trait conveys a good idea of their 
character. 
If they are ungrateful, they are also inhuman. They 
