BOQUE. 
101 
^over the robber, deserved a reward : I therefore presented 
him with three charges of powder. 
When all the people belonging- to the caravan were 
ïissembled, we resolved not to sleep near this village, the 
inhabitants of which were reputed to be inhospitable, and 
proceeded directly to the wells to quench our thirst and water 
our beasts. These wells were not more than ten feet deep: 
the soil in which they are dug is clayey. Two men descended 
to fill my leather bottles, which they emptied into the wooden 
troughs that stood near ; and men and horses alike drank at 
them, for we had not a vessel of any kind with us. After w^e 
had watered our beasts it was necessary to wash them, to recruit 
their strength, for the thirst which they had so long endured 
had almost incapacitated them for carrying us any farther. 
From the wells we repaired to Boqué, in a north-east 
direction, and rested at this village under the bentang, which 
is the name given to a covered public place, resembling our 
market-houses. 
February 23d. The night passed away peaceably, but at 
day-break, the bentang, which was the rendezvous of all the 
inhabitants of the village, was filled v/ith an unusual throng ; 
my figure and colour excited universal laughter ; my breeches, 
which were rather tight, were above all a subject for the jokes 
of these people. I endured them patiently for some hours ; 
but as the crowd kept increasing, I desired Boukari to conduct 
me to the hut of one of his friends, who was a Toucolor ; a 
