^0 
VOYAGE TO SEISEGÀL, 
in a pointed roof, aiul incloscfi the spot. This collection of bary- 
iîîg grounds' resembles another village^, and is often larger than 
the îîihabit( tl one to whieh it belongs. These people do not 
ijiow how to write ; but to distinguish the bodies whieh rest in 
t])e,se little huts, they put a bow and arrow on tlio^e which con- 
tain the men, while the women's sepulchres have at top a pestle 
înid Biortar, being the insli nmcnts which tliry use to pound their 
Jice and millet. In other respects, as they marry amongst each 
Other, and vlius form only one fannly : they have no object m 
transmitting to posterity the names of the dead or their pa- 
rentage. 
The route; from Gorce to Senegal is in general woody^ and 
the woods contain many baman and latane or palm trees. The 
IVuit of the former, and tlie wine of the latter, are too well 
known to need any desciiption. 1'here are also great numbers 
tA' a shrub, whose leaves resemble those of tlie pear-tree, and 
Ikitc .an aromatic iiavour combined with the smell of the myrtle: 
it communicates its delicious Iiavour to the flesh of the catde, 
\ihich feed on it in preference to any other vegetable. There is 
likewise a tree which is called the soap-tree : its fruit is of the size 
of a small walnut, and the negroes, who use it to wash the 
cotton cloths which they wear round their waists, beat it be- 
tween two stones to separate the nut from th*^ shells; and it ia 
with the latter' that they rub what they are about to wash. It 
dissolves easily, and completely cleanses the cotton, but burns 
the cloth : this circumstance, however, though serious to the 
wearers, is of great advantage to our commerce, which supplies 
them with such articles. 
in some parts they cultivate tobacco upon a large scale ; for 
the negroes^ though they only use it for smoking, consimie vast 
quantities. They merely bruise it when ripe, and make it into 
launches ; and notwithstanding this slovenly way of preparing it, 
the flavour of it is tolerably good. 
In the journey to which 1 have alluded we meet with no dan- 
gerous animals, excepting sepents, which are both large and nu- 
merous, beins; sometimes from fifteen to twenty feet long, and a 
foot and a haif in diameter. It is asserted that these are less 
tlangercu-s than the small ones, which are but two inches thick, 
and four or five feet long : it is, however, remarkable that the 
human species are very seldom injured by these reptiles. To 
observe tlie sang froid with which the negroes let tlie serpents 
enter the hovels to creep about, hunt the rats, and sometimes 
the fowls, without feeling the least alarm at their appearance, 
one would suppose that there was a reciprocal contract bet^^ eeu 
them to liv» together in harmony. Nevertheless the negroes are 
somctimeiî bitten by these animals^on which occasions the remedy 
