B9S 
FAR A. 
bear a strong resemblance to the French savon.^ The Bani- 
bara washerwomen^ whom I have just mentioned, were stark 
naked, yet they manifested no shame at being seen in this 
state by the men composing our caravan. 
We advanced three miles to the south, over a soil com- 
posed of grey sand and gravel. We halted at Fara about 
one in the afternoon. The country over which we had tra- 
velled was one immense forest of ces. In this part the ce 
surpasses every other tree in abundance, and the natives 
carry on a considerable trade in the butter which they ob- 
tain from it. They take it to Jenne, w^here they sell it to 
the caravans which stop at that town. In all the inhabited 
places through which I passed, I saw women carrying cala- 
bashes filled with this butter, some of which I often pur- 
chased. The price of a pound was forty cowries (about four 
French sous) . The negro, whose business it was to provide 
millet for the whole caravan, on his return from the market 
informed us that it was much dearer than it had been for 
several preceding days. The expenses of each meal for our 
party, consisting of fifteen or sixteen persons, had usually 
been about eighty cowries : in the village of Fara, it amount- 
ed to thirty more. I was informed that the further we ad- 
vanced towards Jenne, the dearer we should find provisions. 
Their high price is occasioned by the number of merchants 
travelling this way. 
At six o'clock in the morning of the 27th of January, 
we left Fara, and took the direction of N. N. E. over a road 
covered with grey sand. We next reached the banks of the 
Bagoe, the White River of the negroes. Its course is from 
E. S. E. to W. S. W., its banks, which are thickly wooded, 
rise to the height of thirty or forty feet, and are composed of 
a yellow kind of sand, mixed with clay, together with some 
* The Arabic word for soap is saboun. 
