EXTRAORDINARY NOTIONS OF THE NEGROES. 137 
loum, a day's journey and a half from Canel, near the village 
of Ouaondi. . -s»^ i :r-v::-:j vu: ' i-v- 
■f The fever, the roaring- of the lions, but above all the 
inexhaustible gossip of the Negroes, kept me awake the whole 
night. Curious to learn the subject of such an animated 
conversation, I begged Boukari to communicate it to me in 
Joloff. He did so ; and I found that Africans, like ignorant 
Europeans, are fond of talking about what they do not under- 
stand. These Negroes believed that Europeans live exclu- 
sively upon the water ; that they have neither land, houses, 
nor cattle ; they added that the rivers and great waters belong 
to us, in the same manner as all the earth is their patrimony. 
I therefore concluded that this was the reason why white men 
alone were forced to pay imposts to the Negro kings, who 
regard them as their tributaries. They had not a high opinion 
of our courage, affirming that we did not even know how to 
fire a musket, and that this science belonged exclusively to 
the Moors and Poulas. 
Whilst I was attentively listening to their conversation, 
one of these Negroes addressing himself to me, begged me to 
write for him the name of Jesus Christ, assuring his compa- 
nions that by pronouncing this sacred name, we procured 
riches of all kinds. When I had furnished him with what 
he desired, he asked me what he ought to do to obtain all 
sorts of good things from Issa, I replied, that he must work 
hard and sleep little. This method did not appear to fulfil 
T 
