244 MARTIAL DANCES. 
he had at first taken me for a christian ; but that now he 
saw he had been deceived, and that I certainly was an Arab. 
He talked very much, and endeavoured to flatter me. 1 saw 
that he wanted something, and gave him a little tobacco, 
promising that on my arrival at Kankan I would present him 
with a pair of scissors : he proposed to conduct me to Sego, 
whence he said I could go to Jenn^ by water : I told him 
that was just what I wished, and he took his leave. The 
chief sent us something for supper, and one of the inhabitants 
gave us some white yams boiled. The people of this village 
spent their evenings and great part of the night in perform- 
ing martial dances. They came to borrow my guide's mus- 
ket. The men dance to the sound of two tambourines. These 
tambourines have each a stick about fourteen inches long, 
one end of which is fastened to the bottom, and the other to 
the rim of the instrument, by strings made of sheep's gut, 
resembling those of the guitar ; at the ends of the stick are 
a number of small bells, rings, and bits of iron, which make 
a jingling accompaniment to the sound of the tambourine, 
and produce a very agreeable effect. The musicians sing,' 
and strike the tambourines with the hand ; their songs sti- 
mulate the courage of the warriors, whom they exhort to 
fight bravely, and destroy the infidels. The actors in these 
mimic wars are armed with sabres, bows, and muskets 3 
they leap and dance to the sound of the instruments, assum- 
ing menacing attitudes, as though they would destroy their 
adversaries : they discharge their muskets, and shpot their 
arrows, and afterwards, as if they had been victorious in 
battle, they leap and dance in token of rejoicing, and make a 
thousand other grimaces of that sort. This spectacle col- 
lected together almost all the inhabitants of the place. After 
looking on for a short time, I returned to my hut, for I was 
afraid of being insulted. When Lamfia joined me, he told 
me that the dance we had just witnessed was a representa- 
tion of the way in which these people make war against the 
infidels. 
