LANGUEBANA — IRON WORKS. 213 
is an art as frequently employed in Negroland as in Europe ; 
and that in the former as well as the latter, people detest and 
yet embrace each other. 
We directed our course to the south, and passed the 
ruins of a stone fortress, formerly erected by the pagans of the 
country, who were massacred by the army of one of the 
predecessors of the present Almamy. If I had thought Bou- 
bou's pace too quick in the desert, it now appeared to me as 
much too slow, which annoyed me greatly, because I was 
afraid lest Ali, repenting of having allowed me to take away 
the remainder of my merchandize, might send some of his 
people in pursuit of me, This apprehension prevented me 
from paying attention to the difficulties of the path, which, 
interrupted by rocks and forests, did not permit us to travel 
with expedition. At noon, however, we were at Languebana, 
a village inhabited by Serracolets ; they had chosen this situa- 
tion on account of the vicinity of a small river, for the people 
of this nation fix their abode in preference in spots which 
abound in fish. Most of the inhabitants are proprietors of 
furnaces for smelting iron ; it is an employment to which the 
Serracolets most cheerfully apply themselves. To hammer 
this metal they use fragments of granite of a rounded form, 
encircled by a leather band ; this band is fastened to leather 
thongs, which the workman holds in his hands. He raises 
the stone, and lets it fall on the iron, which is placed on a 
very low anvil fixed in the sand. By this rude and tedious 
