MOUSE SAUCE. 
return and help the others with their burdens, especially 
when the journey has been long. 
On the 13th of January, we set out at four o'clock in the 
morning, in order to take advantage of the cool air. W e pro- 
ceeded to the N. E.for the distance of four miles, over a soil 
composed of very hard grey sand. The country was pretty flat, 
with the exception of some granite blocks, rising six or seven 
feet above the ground. The ce was very abundant, but the nede 
much less common than in the parts through which we had 
previously journeyed. We passed near Couraniso, and then 
the road became rather stony. We went on for five miles 
more without seeing the least trace of cultivation, and at ten 
o'clock in the morning arrived at Cacoron, where we halted. 
This village contains from five to six hundred inhabitants, to 
whom I was an object of great curiosity. As 1 had not yet 
breakfasted, I went to a Bambara woman, who was pounding 
boiled yams ; I botight some of her for a few glass beads, and 
she gave me separately, in a small pot, some gombo sauce. On 
dipping my yams into this sauce, I discovered, to my great 
mortification, some little paws, and immediately ascertained 
that the sauce was made of mice ; however, I was hungry, 
and I continued my meal, though, I must confess, not with- 
out some feelings of disgust. The negroes, when they take 
their yams without sauce, never mash them : those which I 
bought from the negress were ready prepared. In the even- 
ing I saw many women chopping mice to make sauce for 
their suppers. I observed that they gut the animals, and, 
without taking the trouble of skinning them, merely draw 
them across the fire to singe off the hair : thus prepared, they 
lay them in a corner of the hut, and it is not unusual to 
keep them there for seven or eight days before they are 
•cooked. The mice, which make their way into the jars of 
millet, are caught by the women and children without the aid 
of traps. 
