298 CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE OF FOUTA DIALLON. 
has borrowed tlie model of them from the Europeans. Imi- 
tation sometimes leads to perfection: his huts, better con- 
structed than any in this part of Western Africa, are large, 
airy, and closed by wide doors ; it is true, that the bamboo 
w4iich is employed in this country, alfords great facilities for 
this kind of work. Neatness prevails in the interior ; their 
luxury consists in being ornamented with arms or the mats 
of Liban. These Poulas are also excellent potters ; the earth 
which they use is of a deep black, and is easily moulded. It 
might be supposed from the appearance of their vases that 
they were varnished. I have admired the elegance of their 
wooden porringers, which look just as if they had been 
turned, but -which, however, are only made with the hatchet. 
Their works in leather, and their poniards, are far from 
equalling those of the Moors, but they have no rivals in the 
fabrication of bows ; they also excel in the use of them. One 
of their warriors whom I met with, had fifty arrows in his 
quiver ; forty-seven were discharged with effect ; the poison in 
which they dip them, and which is a species of echites, pro- 
duces terrible effects : that which is prepared at Boié is said to 
be particularly dangerous. -, • 
The women are not handsome, and but few of them have 
good shapes : effrontery disfigures those that are pretty. It is 
scarcely possible to conceive how they can reconcile the mo- 
desty which they sometimes affect before strangers, with the 
