EARLY DEVOTIONS. 
master. They fetch wood and water for him, clean his hut^ 
cultivate his field, and gather in his harvest. The parents 
of the children make the tutor some little presents of cloth, 
tabacco, and seed to sow in his garden. The schoolmaster 
of Cambaya had a high reputation for piety. He was poor 
and took his meals at the house of the chief, who also sent 
for me to partake of all their repasts. In the hut of the 
Bondouk^ (man of Bondou) I slept on the ground, upon 
which was spread a mat which Ibrahim had given me* 
The old marabout every night kindled a fire in his hut, the 
smoke of which I found exceedingly unpleasant. His reli- 
gious zeal led him to rouse me every morning at three 
o'clock, to go to the mosque and return thanks to God ; for 
the old man exercised the two-fold functions of priest and 
schoolmaster. The Mandingoes were far from being so 
very devout. They said their prayers in their huts at five or 
six o'clock. We were often the only persons in the mosque, 
though the old man used every endeavour to summon the 
faithful. He complained that the Mandingoes were not 
sufficiently attentive to prayer. On returning to our hut, I 
lay down on my mat to rest ; but my companion, instead of 
following my example, spent the rest of the morning at his 
prayers. The good old man was very kind to me. Ibrahim 
was not the only person who invited him to eat with him. 
Many others did the same, and thus, though the old man 
was poor, he lived very well. I found myself extremely 
comfortable in the village. The people had become accus- 
tomed to my person, and my assiduity in fulfilling my 
religious duties, banished every suspicion of me. There 
was, however, one man who persisted in asserting that I was 
a white. He pretended to speak Arabic, of which he only 
knew a few words, and those he pronounced so ill that it 
was with difficulty I could understand him. This vexed me a 
little, though nobody paid much attention to what he said. 
On the 13th, I was sitting at the door of my hut, hold- 
