370 
DRESS. 
look at it as long as I could have wished, for the caper- 
ing of two or three hundred negroes raised an insuffer- 
able dust. 
Throughout the whole of Bambara, and, according to 
the account of some negroes^ even to a considerable distance 
south of Cacoron, the same music prevails. It is certainly 
one of the best and most agreeable I heard during my travels 
among the negroes. These people spend the greater part of 
the night in dancing; their dispositions are gentle and 
humane^ and they are content with the present, without 
troubling themselves about the future. They have scarcely 
any clothing, generally wearing a sort of girdle, ornamented 
with cowries, which, after going round the waist aud between 
the legs, is brought up in front to tie. To these girdles are 
attached fringes of cotton, which descend to the knee. The 
old men wear the usual pagne, and generally in the most 
filthy state. The women likewise wear pagnes, which are 
tied round their loins, and descend to their knees ; they 
plat their hair in tresses, and rub their bodies all over with 
butter. The men shave their heads, like the Mahometans ; 
but some tufts of hair are left, varying in size, according to 
the fancy of the wearer. Their skin is of the same colour as 
that of the Foulahs of the Wassoulo, and like them they have 
aquiline noses, thin lips, woolly hair, and sharp-pointed 
teeth ; they make incisions on their faces and bodies. 
In this country they make a sort of beer, or hydromel, 
of fermented millet and honey. They are very fond of this 
liquor which they drink till they intoxicate themselves. 
On the 14th January, at five in the morning, we left the 
cheerful inhabitants of Cacaron, and proceeded three miles 
to the east over a level country, the soil of which was com- 
posed of very hard grey sand. We came to a mountain of 
black granite entirely barren. It extends north and south, 
and is about two hundred and fifty paces high. We 
