402 
THE MARKET. 
As we approached the village, the chief stopped the 
caravan in a field to count the loads. To guard against any 
mistake in the payment of the passage-duties, he gave to 
each merchant as many pieces of wood as he had loads. 
Each load was charged at the rate of twenty colat- nuts, the 
price of the latter being from fifteen to eighteen cowries a- 
piece in the village. The chief lodged us in some large huts. 
On our arrival, I immediately visited the market, where I 
bought some maumies and sour milk. The market is kept in 
very good order. The dealers, who were ranged in two rows, 
were neatly dressed, and behaved with great civility to those 
who bought their commodities, which consisted of the produce 
of the country. Their shops were filled with cotton, raw and 
manufactured, salt, millet, allspice, long pepper, pistachios, 
zambalas, the fruit of the baobab, and the dried leaves of 
that tree, which are used in cookery. I also exhibited my 
ware, and sold some glass ornaments and pieces of coloured 
calico, which strongly excited the admiration of the negroes. 
I afterwards went, accompanied by my guide, to visit the 
chief. I found him seated in a large hut, surrounded by 
some Mandingo merchants, who were engaged in discussing 
their affairs. The wife of the chief had seen my glass trin- 
kets, and she begged her husband to buy some for her. I 
sold him about twenty beads, at thirty cowries each. Several 
women purchased from me little bits of coloured stufi^, mea- 
suring about eighteen or twenty inches long, and four broad, 
for each of which they paid me three hundred cowries, worth 
twenty four French sous. One of the confidants of the chief, 
who received the colats in payment of the passage- duties, 
presented me with ten very fine ones, which he begged me to 
accept. This man's hands and feet were covered with 
leprosy. My companions found a sale for some of their 
colats. At supper time, as I was taking the air in the court, 
I saw the chief of the village stretched upon a mat, with his 
