TOBACCONIST'S SHOP. 383 
number of people were assembled. He had beside him a 
heap of cowries, amounting, perhaps, to thirty thousand. 
These were his day's receipts. He offered me a little snuff; 
I thanked him, but observed, that 1 did not take it. This 
seemed to astonish him, for the practice of snuff-taking is 
universal in the village. Throughout almost all Africa, the 
Mandingoes are the only people who do not smoke. I never 
saw a woman use a pipe. The snuff which I saw in the 
tobacconist's shop smelt very well, and, unlike the usual snuff 
of the country, it was of a light chesnut colour 5 that which I 
saw in the other villages was green, and had but a faint 
smell. 
Both the men and women who were at the market 
seemed better dressed and cleaner than those I had seen on 
the road from Time. Very few of the women had their lips 
pierced. 
On returning to my hut, I saw three men masked, like 
those I have already described. They were running after 
the children, who were endeavouring to escape from 
them. 
In the evening, I went to see Karamo-osila, and asked 
him to pay me for the gunpowder which I had sold at Time, 
for the celebration of the degue-sousou. It was he who had 
undertaken to pay me. He informed me that he could not 
pay me in cowries, as had been agreed, because the colats did 
not sell very well ; but that he would give me merchandise 
for the value. After a moment's reflection, he added, that I 
had sold my powder too dear, and that I ought to be satisfied 
with eighty colat-nuts, which were at that time equivalent to 
half a gourde. This did not astonish me, for it was what I 
expected. The Mandingoes are invariably dishonest in their 
dealings with strangers, especially when they know that they 
are not running any risk by so doing. I complained not of 
this injustice: I knew that my complaints would be useless. 
He directed his slaves to select eighty small colats, and he 
