TISSO-SOMA N— S A N A N S O. 
371 
advanced five miles further in the same direction. On the 
way we passed some large blocks of black granite. 
About nine in the morning we halted at Tisso- Soman, 
a pretty village, lying between two small hills of very pale 
granite. In the centre of this village I saw a number of 
wells seven or eight feet in depth. The ground in which 
they are dug consists of sand mixed with coarse grey gravel, 
and at the bottom of the wells is some grey clayey earth, with 
pieces of rock, the nature of v/hich I was unable to determine. 
The clay is of a whitish grey, and very slippery. I was 
unable to judge of its quantity by what was thrown up and left 
round the edge of the wells. The water was very good ; but 
rather white in colour. 
The women of the caravan seated themselves round 
these wells to wash their millet. 
After a light breakfast, consisting of tau and a bad sauce 
made of herbs, we left the village. About two o'clock we 
took an easterly direction, and proceeded about six miles, over 
a soil similar to that which 1 last described. Our progress 
was somewhat impeded by large blocks of granite, which 
we encountered at every step, and on either side of us were 
small hills of the same material. At sunset we halted at Sa- 
nanso, a large walled village, containing seven or eight hun- 
dred inhabitants, I seated myself near a hut, to rest after 
my fatigue ; but the chief of the village invited me to sit by 
him, on some large clumps of wood, raised a little above 
the ground and placed near the door of his hut. Above these 
seats there was a sort of canopy, made of branches of trees. 
The chief had a little fire beside his seat, and the smoke was 
so disagreeable that I could not stay longer than a few 
minutes. He asked me some questions concerning the whites 
and their mode of living, and seemed satisfied with my an- 
swers. 
The village is situated in a large, well cultivated, and fer- 
tile plain. At a little distance from it there is a mountain of 
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