FOUDEDIA. 
201 
there found the people of our caravan who had gone on before. 
The chief gave us a good hut and sent us a supper of rice and 
milk. Several men belonging to the village, who had formed 
part of the expedition of the almamy Yayaye against Firga, 
arrived. They said that the almamy had received a check 
and had lost some of his troops in battle ; and that one of 
the inhabitants of Foudedia was among the number of the 
slain. This intelligence occasioned great grief. The wives 
of the deceased, accompanied by many of his relations and 
friends, paraded the village, singing in a shrill tone and al- 
ternately clapping their hands and striking their foreheads. 
Having continued this ceremony some time, they returned 
to their huts, followed by a crowd of women imitating their 
gestures. Their cries seemed to augment their grief : they 
rolled on the ground striking their bodies and uttering 
dreadful groans. The children shed sincere tears, but the 
women merely made a noise ; deep as their affliction seemed 
to be it lasted only half an hour. They then appeared 
clothed in white ; they had a calm and resigned air, and im- 
mediately resumed their usual occupations. The men were 
assembled round the mosque, and seated on the ground. 
They appeared really afflicted at the death of their comrade, 
and loudly censured the conduct of their sovereign. 
On the 9th of May, at six o'clock in the morning, we 
pursued our route in an E. S. E. direction. We went 
two miles, over a soil at first rather stony but which after- 
wards changed to black sand covered with gravel, till we 
came to some rocks of white quartz, and crossed a little 
stream the waters of which reached up to our knees. It 
flowed to the north over a sandy bed. Its banks were thickly 
wooded. 1 observed many tamarind-trees. The soil conti- 
nued level and covered with gravel. We met many persons 
going to the market of Lab^ to sell calabashes and earthen 
pots manufactured in the country. These pots appeared 
to be of good materials and of much better workmanship 
