MANDINGO DISTRICTS. 
345 
self to the night dew* Yani, and the adjacent 
Mandingo districts, present an immense level 
surface, where the absence of picturesque beauty 
is compensated by the fertility of the soil. Be- 
sides rice, millet, maize, and esculent vegetables, 
the natives cultivate indigo and cotton in the vi- 
cinity of their towns and villages. Their domes- 
tic animals are almost the same as in Europe; 
the ass is employed in carrying burdens ; but the 
plough is unknown, and the substitution of ani- 
mal for human labour unpractised in agriculture. 
The most common wild animals are the elephant, 
panther, hyaena, and jackal. The negroes of the 
Gambia have no idea of taming the elephant, 
and, when the practice is mentioned, term it a 
*white marCs lie. The shrill bark of the jackal, 
and the deep howl of the hyasna, mingling with 
the incessant croaking of frogs, and the tremen- 
dous peals of midnight thunder, — form no pleas- 
ant symphony. The Gambia is deep and muddy, 
and its banks are covered with impenetrable 
thickets of mangroves. The stream contains 
sharks, crocodiles, and river-horses, (an animal 
which may be more properly denominated the 
river-elephant,) in immense numbers, with vari- 
ous kinds of excellent fish. The negroes live 
chiefly on vegetable food ; they reduce their corn 
to meal in a mortar, and most commonly use it 
in the form of kouskous^ a species of pudding 
