230 ANIMALS, &C. OF FOUTA JALLON. 
if her husband is in the hut she returns no answer; if he is 
absent, she receives the stranger with kindness. Can these 
Negresses be perfidious? The power of the husband is abso- 
lute. The villages resemble camps ; the inhabitants possess but 
few cattle, and those of small size ; the cows give but little 
milk. Sheep are rarely met with, and neither asses nor horses 
are to be seen. My ass spread consternation through all the 
villages. Neither the lion nor the elephant has surmounted 
these almost inaccessible heights ; the former would not find 
prey sufficient, and the latter is too unwieldy to climb them. 
Hyœnas and panthers are numerous there ; the forests are 
peopled with monkeys; some antelopes rove about in the 
defiles of the mountains. The population is very inconsi- 
derable ; the chief wealth of the inhabitants consists in slaves, 
who are very numerous ; the price of a slave is fifteen piastres, 
which coin passes currently in their traffic by barter, and is 
used for trinkets. Silver in the estimation of the blacks is 
almost as valuable as gold, and a traveller provided with small 
coin, would be sure not to want for any thing, since silver is 
every where in request. 
The mountains w^hich overlook Niébel are exclusively 
inhabited by the Dialonkés, who occupy four villages called 
Tenda Niébel. They pay tribute to the chief of Bandeia. 
Like the rest of their nation, tliey worship three pieces of 
wood tied together, one white, the other black, and the third 
