TAMERO — SYENSO. 
435 
seemed much pleased at this and appeared more cheerful 
than usual. 
At the market I saw some good dried fish, which I bought 
for supper, and my travelling companions partook of it. The 
village of Tamero is, like all the others, composed of several 
walled inclosures. It is shaded by baobabs, and contains a 
population of about three or four hundred. The fruit and 
leaves of the baobab are carefully gathered and the inhabit- 
ants carry on a great trade in them. 
On the 1st of March, we set out at six in the morning, 
and travelled five miles N. N. E. Shortly after leaving the 
village we crossed a large inundated marsh, being up to our 
waists in water. This marsh is frequented by numbers of 
aquatic birds, as the pelican, the egret, the trumpet-bird, the 
marabou, the puffin, the Barbary duck, the teal, and various 
other species, which 1 could not distinguish. The natives do 
not shoot these birds, gun-powder being with them a very 
scarce article. Having crossed the marsh, we passed over a 
tract, the soil of which was composed of a kind of loose sand. 
Here I observed tamarind-trees and samps in abundance, as 
well as the rhamnus lotus, the ce, the nede, and the baobab. 
About nine in the morning we halted at Syenso, where 
some of the inhabitants were engaged in storing the fruit of 
the baobab. For this purpose they break the shell with a 
large piece of wood, and then take out the pulp, which, after 
being thoroughly dried in the sun, they slightly pound to 
extract the fecula, which is much esteemed in this country. 
The people put it into their sauces and use it as a substitute 
for honey in preparing their dokhnou. At Syenso ropes are 
made of the hibiscus cannihinus, or hemp, discovered at Gam- 
bia by a Frenchman named Baudery, and which is also used 
on the Senegal. No machinery is employed in making these 
ropes ; they are merely twisted by hand, consequently they 
are not very strong, especially as the hemp, which is not 
wetted before it is used, is gathered when very dry. I bought 
2 F 2 
