426 
DWARF COTTON. 
singers are followed by a number of well dressed girls, each 
of whom carries a little calabash to receive what may be 
given, whilst the concert is going on. Shortly afterwards we 
were attacked by another set of beggars, who sing prayers 
from the Koran in a loud voice. These singers stood at the 
doors, and the people gave them some colat nuts. 
At six o'clock in the morning of the 19th of February, 
we proceeded in a N. E. direction. We travelled three miles 
through a very open country, the soil being similar to that 
which I had observed for several preceding days. I saw many 
fields of cotton of a very small species. On the road, a poor 
woman carrying a heavy load was taken in labour and delivered 
in a cotton field. We went forward, leaving the poor creature 
in the care of two females. Next morning I was much sur- 
prised to see her following the caravan, with an empty cala- 
bash on her head. Her countenance had undergone a 
change. 
We halted at Sanso, where we passed the remainder of 
the day. In the environs of this village were many planta- 
tions of cotton, of a kind which I had not before seen, either 
on the banks of the Senegal or in the neighbourhood of 
Sierra- Leone. It does not grow higher than five or six inches 
above the ground. It has very few branches, and the plant 
has the same appearance as the large cotton. The wool 
which it produces is of inferior quality, very short, and not 
of a good white. I likewise saw here a cotton plant which 
grows to the height of four or five feet. Dwarf cotton 
is cultivated at some distance from the village. It is very 
abundant, and is sown at random among the millet as in Was- 
soulo. This cotton is annual. A great deal of it is sold to the 
women belonging to the caravans which are continually 
passing through the country. The inhabitants also make 
with it a narrow cloth, which is manufactured throughout all 
the interior 5 for, in proportion as I advanced towards the 
banks of theDhioliba, I perceived a great change in the 
