DRESS OF THE BAMBARAS. 
333 
and entertain all the strangers who visit them, they would 
soon be ruined. The merchants purchase their provisions, 
and get them cooked by the women who follow the caravans. 
These negroes dress precisely in the same way as those who 
inhabit the regions further to the north. The dress of the 
women differs only in the mode of arranging their hair. 
They generally have their heads uncovered. Some plat 
their hair and fasten glass beads at the end of each tress ; 
others have merely a tuft of hair at each side of the head ; 
sometimes they take a piece of cotton of the manufacture of 
the country, about three yards long, and roll it round their 
heads, bringing it very forward upon the forehead. 
About the end of October the rains ceased entirely, the 
days became exceedingly hot and the nights cool. I observed 
that the negroes are all extremely subject to take cold, which 
I attribute to their habit of lying near a great fire in their 
huts, and then going out thinly clad. My host Baba, who, 
during the first month of my abode at Time, had paid me 
great attention, no doubt on account of the pretty presents 
which I had made him, began to neglect me. When I was 
long without giving him anything, he was constantly begging 
of me and manifesting his ill-humour. On the other hand 
I was tormented by the women, who came in crowds to 
ask me for glass beads. I was at once an object of curiosity 
and aversion to them. They ridiculed my gestures and my 
words, and went about the village mimicking me and repeat- 
ing what I said. Their gossip attracted fresh visiters to my 
hut 3 in short, from morning till night they were before my 
door, and when I went out I was followed by a troop of women 
who called after me in their own language — " The Arab is 
not good, he does not give us any thing" — (Larah-magne 
atemo-ocp) , Sometimes I got rid of them by giving them a 
few glass beads ; but they soon renewed their attack. During 
the first month I was not molested in this way ; but, when 
they became better acquainted with me, they grew intolerably 
