ITS COMMERCE, &c. 317 
and eight parcels of beads of a bright chesnut colour ; or, a 
gun and four yards of rose-coloured taffeta are also the price 
of a slave. The trade of Sambatikila is not brisk ; and is 
far from equal to that of Kankan; the want of a market in- 
jures it greatly, and the inhabitants are poor. Their crops 
are not sufficient to last from one year to the next, and they 
are forced to buy rice from the Bambaras, paying for it with 
salt, which the others cannot procure in any other way. The 
Mandingoes would rather go without food part of the day 
than woriv in the fields ; they pretend that labour would take 
off their attention from the Koran, which is a very specious 
excuse for their laziness. 
Their flocks, which are not numerous, consist of sheep 
and goats ; they also rear poultry ; the few horses they have 
are of a very small breed. The son of the almamy with 
whom I lodged had performed several journeys to Jenne; he 
told me without any fear of compromising his dignity, that 
he had carried a load of colat-nuts on his head, as well as his 
companions. I questioned him as to the length of the jour- 
ney ; and he told me that it took two months and a half or 
three months to get thither, and that it w as not possible to 
make more than two journeys in a year. 
The title of almamy, or king, is hereditary ; the eldest 
son of the sovereign always succeeds. He has usually four 
wives and a great number of children. He is the only chief 
at Sambatikila, and if disputes arise the elders assemble at the 
almany's house, or at the mosque, to administer justice. Guns 
are not as common in this village as at Kankan, for I saw 
nothing but bows and arrows hanging up in the houses which 
I visited. 
About ten in the morning, we commenced our journey ; 
Arafanba, the two saracolets, and the Foulah, conducted me 
as far as the bank of a rivulet, which the natives call Oulaba, 
and which waters the neighbourhood of Sambatikila ; we 
crossed in a wretched canoe, which was nearly upset more 
