B EE-HIVES. 
395 
no one capable of rendering me those disagreeable services. 
I drew from my palate a bone, which was connected with 
the skull. I asked my guide to procure some of the astrin- 
gent, which the natives employ in such disorders. He 
immediately ordered one of his women to prepare me some 
and I used it with success. 
Throughout all this part of Africa, even on this side of 
Baleya, the negroes place hives in the trees, for bees to 
settle in. They collect a great quantity of honey, of which 
they are very fond. These hives are made of the bark of 
trees, and covered with straw. I saw several green trees, 
entirely stripped of the bark for this purpose. In the environs 
of the village, millet and maize are cultivated. Markets are 
not held daily, but some women came and sold us millet and 
pistachio-nuts for supper. 
On the 25th of January, at six in the morning, we pro- 
ceeded northward, at first over a sandy and well cultivated 
tract, and afterwards over a soil composed of red earth 
covered with gravel, and having ferruginous stones on the 
surface. This country is full of ces and nedes. We met a 
caravan of Mandingo merchants coming from Kayaye, where 
they had been buying salt. They had with them many 
asses, and the animals were adorned with fine scarlet bridles, 
which are sold in the markets on the banks of the Dhioliba. 
These bridles were studded with cowries, and bells ; each 
ass had about fifty bells attached to his collar, so that their 
approach was audible from some distance. The salt ap- 
peared to me to be ratlier dark in colour, and very coarse 
in the grain. It was made up in cakes of two feet and a 
half long, one foot broad and two inches thick. An ass 
generally carries four of these cakes, and a negro two and a 
half ; the women carry only two, but their burthen is aug- 
mented by calabashes and cooking utensils. 
About nine in the morning, we reached Siracana, a 
large walled village, containing from six to eight hundred 
