SANTIMATIOU. 
181 
distance the fires of Santimatiou : suddenly my horse, which 
for a month had been very peaceable, ran away with me. 
The noise which I had heard in a thicket, together with the 
start which he had made, gave me reason to suppose that he 
was pursued by some wild beast. The fear of being attacked 
by lions, which are very common in this country, prevented 
me from checking my horse, which never stopped till he had 
reached the village. My guides, not knowing to what cause 
to attribute my precipitate flight, soon rejoined me. They 
informed me that an enormous vulture hirking in the thicket, 
had in flying out of it frightened my horse. The chief of 
the village told us he could neither lodge nor feed us ; in fact, 
the people of this place, who wholly devote themselves to 
the culture of cotton, have but little millet, and I began to 
fear that I should be obliged to go without my supper, as I 
had done without my dinner, when we were advised to apply 
at a hut situated at a little distance from the road. 
On entering it I saw a great number of people in motion ; 
fires were lighted over the whole court, and on them were 
placed enormous kettles. These were preparations for the 
wedding feast of the son of the proprietor of the house, who 
was just married ; hungry people could not have arrived at a 
better time. The preparations for supper made us suppose 
that our repast would be plentiful ; the master of the house 
ordered us to be conducted to a distant hut ; we lay down at 
the door, for in all this part of Africa, strangers rest outside the 
