404 
MAGNA-GNOUNAN. 
over very hard grey sand^ and shaded by bombaces^ 
baobabs^ and ces ; the latter vrere very abundant. A man 
belonging to our caravan being ill^ his companions subscribed 
together for the purchase of a kid^ for^ since our departure, 
they had scarcely eaten any thing but tau, and herb sauce 
vt'ithout salt. My guide gave me a bit of the kid, about the 
size of an egg 5 for it was divided among so many, that even 
my allowance was more than fell to the lot of some of the rest. 
The country round the village is very open, and the soil 
level. The ce and the nede are more numerous than any 
other trees. Touriat contains between three and four hun- 
dred inhabitants. 
On the 31st of January, at six in the morning, after 
proceeding some distance N.N.E., over a soil composed of 
hard sand, and covered with ferruginous stones and gravel, 
me arrived at Magna-Gnounan, where we stopped to dine. 
In the neighbourhood of the village there are some pretty 
little gardens, planted with onions and beans, which the in- 
habitants cultivate carefully : they use the leaves for making 
their sauces. I also saw some fields of tobacco, which, in 
this place, is cultivated no better than at Time ; but it is of 
a finer kind : the leaves are broad and very long, and, if it were 
well attended to, it would thrive as well as that cultivated in 
Europe. The village of Magna Gnounan is walled, and 
contains about two hundred and fifty inhabitants ; the en- 
virons are well wooded with mimosas and large baobabs. I 
saw some cotton plantations ; but they appeared to be 
neglected. I sat down beyond the boundaries of the village, 
in the shade of a baobab, and roasted some pistachios for my 
dinner, which I shared with some of my companions. 
At the distance of a mile south-east I observed two hills, 
about a hundred, or a hundred and twenty fathoms in height: 
they appeared to be clothed with fine vegetation. Under the 
baobabs, on the outside of the village, a little market is held ; 
but it is ill supplied, and nothing is sold in it but pistachios 
