ECONOMY OF THE CARAVAN. 
367 
set about bruising millet for supper. It is the business of 
the slaves to procure fire- wood for cooking. The free ne- 
groes are exempted from all this trouble ; they lie down and 
rest themselves until their meals are ready : they then go 
through the village with their calabashes^ containing colats, 
which they exchange with the inhabitants for cowries. 
With these they purchase grain for the supply of the caravan. 
The women employ their leisure moments in spinning cot- 
ton^ which they purchase with the colats given to them by 
their husbands. I have seen them spin by the light of a lamp 
fed with vegetable butter ; the produc e of this labour is their 
own little perquisite. On their arrival at Jenne, they sell 
their spun cotton for cowries, with which they buy salt and 
glass trinkets. The women likewise wash the men's clothes. 
The men, as soon as they have rested themselves, inspect 
the loads of colats, especially those which during the 
journey have fallen from the asses' backs. They cover the 
fruit with fresh leaves, in order to keep it cool ; they then go 
into the village to dispose of their cloth ; they also settle the 
payment of the passage money; for all foreign merchants, 
however numerous they may be, are obliged in every place 
they halt to pay for the whole of the company, a small tax, 
the amount of which sometimes varies, but is generally about 
twenty colats for each load : these twenty colats are worth 
two hundred cowries, (about twenty sous, French money). 
When the caravan is numerous, which often happens, for it 
gains accessions on the road, some person who has but a 
small load goes forward, and arrives first in the village to 
procure lodgings for his companions ; he then deposits his 
load and returns to meet his friends, whom he directs to their 
respective destinations. Those who do not adopt this prudent 
precaution have the trouble of seeking through the village for 
a place to put up at, and are often obliged to proceed farther, 
it is customary for the parties who first reach the village to 
