TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
193 
most effective division of Almamy^s army is en- 
tirely composed of the Joloff and Woolli people, 
who are proverbial for bravery. The greater 
number of those of Kayaye being priests are ex- 
empt from the field by the payment of a large 
yearly present to Almamy, who, in addition to 
the present, often trespasses, in the form of a 
request (but which they dare not refuse), on 
their stores of provisions and their herds of cat- 
tle, with both which they are better supplied 
than any other class of people in that country. 
But this is not the only advantage they possess, 
for they enjoy a degree of respect and inde- 
pendence even in their connexions with the 
princes, who look upon all belonging to them 
as sacred, Almamy alone, being the head of 
the church, daring to infringe on their rights 
and privileges. 
Bondoo has been, for some years, involved in 
a war with the king of Karta, which arose, as most 
of the wars in Africa do, in an act of aggression 
in this case on the part of Bondoo, to explain 
which, it will be necessary to detail, at some 
length, the circumstances which led to the 
act itself. This will, at the same time, serve to 
give a just idea of the politics of those people, 
and to prove how well they are versed in the 
principles of self interest and aggrandizement, 
o 
