408 
O U L A S S O. 
CHAPTER XVI. 
Oulasso. — Facibrisso. — ^Toumane. — Implements of husbandry. — Couara.. 
— Koraba. — Douasso. — Kong. — Baunan. — Garo. — Forges. — Nibak- 
hasso. 
About two o'clock in the afternoon, we left the village of 
Mouriosso, and proceeded in the direction of E. N. E. over 
a hard soil, composed of grey earth mixed with sand, and 
studded with ferruginous stones and gravel. It was barren 
in the extreme. About six in the evening we halted at 
Oulasso, a village, the huts of which are enclosed and built 
like those of Mouriosso, and containing three or four hundred 
inhabitants. In this village we found a caravan of Man- 
dingo traders coming from the south, where they had been 
buying colat-nuts, which they intended to sell at Jenne. 
A large hut was assigned to us ; but we could not stay in it 
on account of the heat and smoke. The fire was lighted at 
the further end of the hut, which might be about twenty 
feet long by eight broad, and the smoke had no outlet but 
the door. The fire consequently produced the same effect as 
a furnace. I passed the night under a mimosa, which grew 
before our hut, having covered myself with my wrapper, for 
the air was cool. 
As the village was too small to afford lodging for two 
caravans several of the merchants slept, like myself, in the 
open air ; however, they took the precaution of lighting 
fires. These fires, glimmering through the village, had a 
very curious effect. They served for the women to cook by ; 
at our last halting station we had procured millet enough 
for the supper of the whole party ; it was well we had taken 
this precaution, for we could get nothing at Oulasso. The 
