PARTICULARS RESPECTING BONDOU. ^ 189 
of the inhabitants of Foutatoro, so much I am bound to 
acknowledge the kindness of those of Bondou ; it is the 
highest compliment that I can pay them; they are mild, 
peaceable, possessed of great presence of mind, receiving 
the stranger with affability, and as I have before observed, 
never troubling him with any impertinent curiosity ; on the 
other hand, we do not find such good living among them as 
in Foutatoro. When we consider the gentleness of the Poulas 
of Bondou, and the insolence of those of Foutatoro, we 
cannot help perceiving, as I have already said, the influence 
of the government on the character of the people ; that of the 
former is monarchical, of the latter republican. 
The Poula language, almost all the words of which 
terminate with e, or a, is extremely soft ; it contains a great 
many JolofF and Arabic words, which the Mahometan religion 
has introduced. 
The men of Bondou are not in general well-favoured ; we 
find among them a great number of deformed persons, but 
cutaneous disorders are rare. Their dress is the same as in 
Foutatoro. Neither are the women so handsome as those of 
that country : in shape and colour they are more like Negresses, 
though of the same origin as the Poulas of Foutatoro. They 
wear much fewer ornaments, and their garments are not made 
with such elegance ; but if they have not their graces, they 
are perhaps exempt from their vices. The contempt with 
which wives divorced from their husbands are treated, operates 
