260 FEARS OF ALI, THE GUIDE, OVERCOME BY BOUIiARI, 
conduct me to the sources I had not yet seen. In vain I 
employed all the arguments I could think of to bring him into 
my views ; it required arguments of a different kind to bend 
him, in short, a present. Wearied of a discussion which lasted 
the whole night, I left Boukari to try his logic, to induce 
Ali to accompany us ; this faithful servant succeeded better 
than I had done, because he contrived to find out that Ali 
<;ould not resist a bribe. Perceiving that Ali wished for a 
rosary of ebony of Moorish manufacture which he carried at 
his girdle, he offered it to him, and the gift of this trinket 
secured our guide. This action of Boukari s afforded a strik- 
ing proof, if I had needed any, of his attachment and generosity 
towards me ; for the rosary of which he deprived himself to 
render me a service, had been given to him by his wife, at 
the moment of parting from her. 
April 24th. We commenced our route, saying we were 
going to Sumbalako to purchase a supply of salt. A storm 
which overtook us by the way, obliged us to stop and to pass 
the night at the rumhdc of the same name. 
The rains had not till this moment been so frequent and 
abundant as they generally are at this season of the year. Ali 
was much astonished at this, but he explained the pheno- 
menon, according- to the natural philosophy of the Negroes, 
by saying, that it was occasioned by Almamy, because he had 
prayed to Heaven to delay the rains till he had entirely 
destroyed the Pagans, with whom he was then at war. 
