NIAMREI, 39 
All the village chiefs whom I have seen, have something 
in their looks that distinguishes them from other Negroes ; 
their manners are not wanting in dignity, and more attention 
is paid to their education than to that of the inferior class of 
their countrymen. Their superiority over the rest in every 
respect is evident, and they know how to qualify it by great 
affability. As to the hospitality which they exercise towards 
strangers it is unbounded. 
The sun had set when we arrived at Niamrei ; I wished 
to remain there some days to procure an ass ; but it was 
impossible. This village contains from three to four thousand 
people ; the activity prevailing there, the opulence which we 
remarked, and the crowd passing to and fro in the streets, 
give it the appearance of a town. In the public place, is a 
large square enclosed with straw mats, where the inhabitants 
assemble for the purpose of prayer. Part of the population 
of the village is composed of Poulas, whose wealth consists in 
flocks. The well of this village is thirty fathoms deep, and 
twenty feet in circumference. This is an efibrt of labour 
which surprises, and which we should indeed think impossible 
to be accomplished by Negroes, when we see the tools they 
employ. They proceed in the following manner : the soil to 
the depth of ten feet being composed of very fine sand, they 
prevent its falling in by supporting the sides with planks 
grooved into one another at their edges ; ladders made of bark 
ropes enable the workmen to descend lower. On coming to 
