COMMUNICATIONS. 
135 
In the culture of thefe different grains, the hoe alone is em- 
ployed, as the ufe of the plough is ftill unknown to the people. 
The women divide with the men the labours of their hufbandiy ; 
for while the latter, with their hoes, open the ground, and form 
the trenches in ftraight lines parallel to each other, the women 
follow and throw in the feed: nor is this the only part which they 
take in the bufmefs of the field ; for to them, as foon as the 
weeds begin to rife on the ridges of the lines in which the grain 
is fowed, the hoe is conftantly transferred. 
The fowing feafon commences at the end of the periodical 
rains of April ; and fuch in that climate is the rapid vegetation, 
that on the 9th of July the gaffob is reaped ; but the gamphuly^ 
a grain of flowxr growth, is feldom cut till the month of Au- 
guft or September. 
Such are the feveral fpecies of corn that, among the people of 
Bornou, fupply the place of the wheat, the barley, and the oats 
of Europe. Two fpecies of roots are alfo ufed as wholefome 
and fubftantial food : the one, which is called the Dondoo, pro- 
duces a low plant, with branches that fpread four or five feet 
upon the ground, and leaves that refemble thofe of the garden- 
bean. At the end of five months, from the time of its being- 
planted, 
