190 
PARTICULARS RESPECTING BONDOU. 
as a check to infidelity. In France, religious devotion is 
more common among- the women than the men ; the contrary 
is the case inBondou ; nevertheless the men, although zealous 
followers of Mahomet, have neither the fanaticism nor the 
intolerance of their neighbours. In Bondou and Foutatoro, 
murderers are beheaded or shot ; but in the latter country, it 
is easy by means of presents to escape punishment. The blind 
confidence of the inhabitants of Bondou in their Q-ris-o-ris, 
would make them heroes, if the race of blacks were capable 
of producing any. The commerce of the country consists in 
slaves, gold, ivory, tobacco, cloth, and cotton, which they 
export to the neighbouring states ; they receive in return, 
millet, fire-arms, powder and cattle. A slave costs a double- 
barrelled gun, and two horns of powder ; this is the price of 
five oxen, and a hundred cloths. Nothing is given away ; 
every article must be paid for. The following are the prices 
of necessaries which I purchased; a calebash full of water 
cost me a necklace of glass beads ; a measure of millet two 
necklaces ; a measure of milk one necklace ; a bundle of hay 
one necklace. Notwithstanding the mildness with which the 
slaves of Bondou are treated by their masters, they have such 
facilities for escaping into the woods, that they frequently 
assemble to the number of two or three hundred, and seek 
refuge in Bambouk, where they are certain of being protected 
by the king, who receives them as his subjects, ^ 
The kingdom of Bambouk, the gold mines of which have 
