58 GRAVES — TREATMENT OF SLAVES. 
their own children: it is even known that in some monarchies, 
the crown is conferred on them to the prejudice of the latter. 
Though the Negroes endure without complaint the priva- 
tions and other hardships attached to human life, they manifest 
extreme sensibility, but perhaps it may not be real, for the loss 
of their parents. For whole days they utter lamentable groans, 
and to have merely known a person, imposes the obligation 
of weeping and sobbing at his death. 
Besides these tokens of grief evinced by the Negroes of 
Cay or, when they lose those whom they have loved, they en- 
deavour to preserve their bodies from the wild beasts, by which 
they might be carried away. Every grave is covered with 
thorny shrubs, which in time form impenetrable bushes. These 
verdant tufts are durable monuments of the pious motive which 
has scattered them over plains parched by the heat of the sun, 
and they are beneficial to the country ; for under their 
' shade spring up the seeds of trees, which may, perhaps, in 
time produce a forest. 
The Joloffs are extremely kind to their slaves ; they take 
as much care of their children as they do of their own ; they 
rarely strike them, and never impose upon them tasks that 
are beyond their strength. 
The slaves of the Damel, proud of the favour of their 
king, would often presume upon it, to commit odious outrages 
upon the other Negroes, were they not obliged to place fetters 
