tFUNINGKEDY — JARRA. 
359 
exclaimed, " He never told a lie /" Mr Park was 
regarded as a cannibal, for proposing the opera- 
tion of amputation. 
On the road between Kemmoo and Funingke- 
dy, Mr Park first observed the negroes gathering 
tomberongs, or the berries of the Rhamnus lotus. 
The lotus is common in all the negro kingdoms, 
and is found on the Gambia, but it is in the 
sandy soil of Kaarta, Ludamar, and the northern 
districts of Bambara, that it is most abundant. 
There the natives collect the small farinaceous 
berries, which are of a yellow colour and delicious 
taste, and, by drying them in the sun, pounding 
them in a mortar, and forming them into a paste 
with water, compose a sort of bread, which re- 
sembles the sweetest gingerbread in colour and 
flavour. The water, sweetened with the juice of 
the lotus berry, forms a pleasant gruel, which is 
the common breakfast in many parts of Ludamar. 
The lotus shrub is found at Tunis, and seems evi- 
dently to be the plant which nourished the Libyan 
Lotophagi of Homer and Pliny, and with which, 
according to Pliny, armies were sometimes sup- 
ported. 
From Funingkedy Mr Park proceeded by Sim- 
bing to Jarra, a large town situated at the foot of 
some rocky hills, in N. lat. 15'' 5\ and was at- 
tended on his route by numerous fugitive Kaar- 
tans, who fled from the arms of Bambara. Not- 
