PICTURE OF NEGRO BEAUTIES. 
123 
procure from their neighbours fowls and other provisions, for 
the purpose of celebrating" our arrival. , . 
March 3d. My Marabout was quite happy; he begged 
my permission to remain with his family until the heat was 
over. I was so deeply interested in his welfare, that I com- 
plied with his request. " All I wish," said he to me, " is to 
be able some day to come and live in Foutatoro ; we Negroes 
when we settle in a foreign country, are anxious to amass a 
small fortune, that we may return as speedily as possible to 
the place where we were born, and where our relations reside." 
Thus the love of country is in every region one of the strongest 
feelings of the human heart. Neither ambition nor avarice 
can stifle it. The sister and niece of Boukari, were richly 
attired to do us honour ; their ears, hair, and necks, were 
loaded with gold, coral, and amber ; they also wore many 
small silver bells. If diamonds draw attention in France, to the 
females who wear them, the women of Foutatoro attract not less 
notice by the jingling made by these bells when they walk. 
In every country coquetry has invented some expedient for 
captivating the eye and pleasing. Boukari's two relatives 
were pretty ; they had oval faces, fine features, delicate shapes, 
elegant and graceful figures, and a skin as black as jet ; for as 
Mulattoes are sallower than Europeans, so the Toucolors, the 
offspring of Poulas and Negroes, are of a darker colour than 
the latter. The modesty of these women charmed me : when- 
ever I looked at them they cast down their eyes, and covered 
R 2 
