138 
SINGULAR CUSTOM. 
the expectations which he had fondly indulged, for, placing 
more faith in the effects of amulets than in the future results of 
my advice, he asked me for another gris-gris ; and I wrote 
him a prayer on a small slip of paper. The Negroes would 
worship a straw if they thought it had the power of enriching 
them ; it might be supposed that they are very happy as being 
exempted from all ambition ; but here, as every where else, 
the thirst of gold torments man, and he would contrive if 
possible to gain it without trouble. 
March 9 th. Thanks to the infusion of tamarinds of which 
I drank copiously, I recovered my health. Bounteous nature 
has taken care to multiply this tree to infinity in the sultry 
regions of Africa ; it is the panacea of the Negro ; it was also 
mine. 
By means of this simple and agreeable medicine I was 
delivered from a fever which at first seemed likely to cut short 
my journey. Feeling myself entirely recovered, as if by 
enchantment, I set out to examine the environs of Canel. I 
was accompanied by a man Avho had lost his hearing in a very 
singular manner. A custom not less barbarous than extraor- 
dinary prevails in Foutatoro ; a slave who wishes to change 
his master seeks by surprise or force to cut off the ear of the 
man whom he fancies ; if he succeeds he immediately becomes 
the property of that person ; and his old master cannot claim 
him again. To this practice my fellow traveller owed his 
deafness ; two slaves had successively cut off each an ear. 
