212 
SLAVE HUTS. 
the rainy season. I bathed^ and found the water up to my 
arm-pits. The banks of the river^ I observed^ are composed 
of grey argillaceous earth, mixed with fine sand. 
I rejoined Ibrahim, and we went together to see the 
huts of the slaves. An old woman was employed in pre- 
paring the dinner of the husbandmen, who provide their own 
food. Behind their huts there are small plantations of ca- 
ribbee cabbage, which the women cultivate. As we were 
sitting near the labourers, the old woman gave her master 
a portion of the dinner, which she had just prepared ; con- 
sisting of a calabash of foigne boiled without salt, with the 
addition of a sauce of different herbs and gombo, which the 
want of butter and salt rendered very unpalatable. 1 ate 
about a handful of it ; but my guide, a little more dainty 
than I, refused to take any; the poor slaves, however, 
seemed to relish it. 1 was informed that, in the Fouta- 
Dhialon, the negroes are allowed two days in the week to 
work in their own fields, that is to say, the ground which fur- 
nishes their subsistence. One of Ibrahim's women brought 
for our dinner a calabash full of rice and milk, which she 
had carried on her head. We did not return to the village 
until a short time before day-break. My guide behaved 
very kindly to me, and in the evening, sitting with him in 
his court -yard, I amused myself by playing with his chil- 
dren. However, at my departure, I thought to penetrate 
to the east, and learned, with regret, that Ibrahim would 
not accompany me to Bour^, according to his promise. He 
alleged that he was prevented from going with me by the 
necessity of attending to his plantations ; but that if I would 
wait for him, he would fulfil his promise. This proposition 
was far from being satisfactory to me, for I was very anxious 
to see myself to the east of the Fouta. I was afraid of being 
discovered by the Foulahs, and wished to reach Kankan 
before the rains, which already began to be very frequent, 
should have fairly set in. 
