248 BANKS OF THE DHIOLIBA. 
came on accompanied by an east wind^ which occa- 
sioned a suffocating heat. The rain poured in torrents. 
When it ceased I again visited the banks of the river. I 
watched its current^ which flowed at the rate of about two 
miles and a half or three miles an hour. At this period it 
was about nine feet deep. This I calculated by the long 
pole which the boatmen used to push along the canoes.* 
In this part it appeared as broad as the Senegal at Podor. 
The right bank is lower than the left^ on which the village 
is situated at an elevation of nearly a twentieth part of 
a mile above the water. I observed in the village many 
large bamboos^ under the shade of which the old men assem- 
ble and spend part of the day in conversation. These 
people use much snuff ; but they do not take it as we do in 
Europe^ with the fingers ; some use a small brush, and 
others a little iron spoon like an ear-pick. The negroes 
told me that the river begins to overflow in July, and that 
then they can go three miles over the plain in canoes. 
A great quantity of rice is grown on this plain. The 
sand-bank which I had seen plainly on the preceding 
evening was now no longer visible. 
Courouassa is a neat village, surrounded by a mud wall, 
from ten to twelve feet high and from eight to ten inches 
thick. It contains between four and five hundred inhabit- 
ants. 1 observed that thousands of swallows, of the same 
kind as those seen in Europe, had built their nests in this 
wall. They were collected in flocks upon the trees, and I 
concluded that they were preparing to depart. 
Courouassa is entered by several low and narrow open- 
ings which are closed by a thick plank made of a single tree. 
The town is shaded by bombaces and boababs, and it is the 
principal of five small villages situated on the banks of the 
Dhioliba. This country is called Amana ; the inhabitants are 
* The boatmen who navigate this river are called sognios. 
