220 
KINDNESS OP A SCHOOLMASTER AT POBË. 
of Niomri, we reached Fobé. I was so weakened from the 
want of nourishment, not having had any thing- to eat for two 
days, that my people placed me on my horse, although this 
poor beast, for a long time reduced to the same regimen, could 
scarcely put one foot before the other. . k a 
When I arrived at the village I asked several Marabouts 
for water, but could not obtain any ; I then went to implore 
the pity of the schoolmaster, whom I saw seated with his 
pupils before his house. After the customary salutation the 
Negro raising his head, exclaimed: "What, is it a white man 
who asks for water ?" He immediately gave me some, and 
seeing me eat with avidity a fruit, called in that country 
coura, " Thou art hungry then," said he ; " come into my 
hut, poor unfortunate." I followed this good man, who 
broke a cake of millet and pistachio-nuts, and invited me to 
take half of it ; I thought that I ought not to be less liberal, 
and divided this valuable present with my fellow-travellers. 
The other inhabitants of the village, encouraged by the 
generous action of the schoolmaster, eagerly imitated him, and 
each brought me something for my supper ; one gave me a bit 
of honey-comb, another two ears of maize, a third a small 
piece of boiled meat wrapped up in a cloth. I was not ungrateful 
towards these compassionate men, who deprived themselves of 
necessaries to feed a white man, a foreigner, a stranger. I 
paid liberally for these gifts, small in reality, but rendered of 
the greatest value by the manner in which they were bestowed. 
