A NEW GUIDE ENGAGED, BUT DETAINED BY HIS WIFE. 267 
which threatened, obliged us to hasten to a village inhabited 
by poor slaves ; they had nothing to offer me for a repast, but 
a calebash full of a ragout, which was not very tempting to a 
European stomach. It was composed of millet flour mixed with 
a species of fly, called betti ; not wishing to perish with hun- 
ger, I conquered the disgust excited by the appearance of this 
food ; but the effect of the repugnance I felt while eating it 
brouf^ht on an attack of fever. 
May 1st. Seated under a very thick bush, we waited the 
return of our new guide, who was gone to purchase provisions 
in the neighbouring village. He came back accompanied by 
his wife, with whom he had had a warm altercation ; I enquired 
the cause, and learned, that she did not wish her husband to 
accompany me, insisting that he would do better to remain at 
home and cultivate his field, which labour in his absence 
would fall upon her. The submission of this man to the 
orders of his wife, notwithstanding the desire he had to attend 
me, surprised me much ; and the whole affair demonstrated, 
that the women have more influence over the men among 
the Poulas, than in other Negro states. The wife of our 
guide, however, considered how she might relieve us from the 
embarrassment in which we found ourselves ; she told her 
husband to fetch two boys, to supply his place as far as the next 
village. This arrangement brought upon us fresh trouble, for 
these little blacks were terrified at the sight of my ass, which 
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