494* ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 
milk is then poured. Men, women, and children, 
sit round indiscriminately, and eat it with their 
fingers, according to the universal practice of 
Africa. Not even the king and queen possess 
a spoon, a knife, or a fork. The only distinc- 
tion which they enjoy, is the use of a little butter 
made from goat's milk, which is considered as 
an article of extreme delicacy. 
There are no physicians except old women, 
who cure external maladies by the application of 
simples. Some of them appeared to be upwards 
of a hundred years old ; nor did Adams see any 
blind, unless from extreme age. None of the ne- 
groes apparently could either write or read, but 
kept their accounts by notching sticks. The 
only tools which they possessed were hoes, chisels, 
knives, small hatchets, with which they cut their 
timber, and a few other rough instruments of iron 
which they procured from the Moors. 
The government of the king was despotic, but 
apparently mild ; he could call upon his subjects 
to take up arms, but did not consider or treat 
them as his slaves. The only punishment for the 
greatest crimes was slavery ; but Adams saw only 
twelve condemned to it during his residence at 
Tombuctoo. Smaller misdemeanours were pu- 
nished by beating with a cane, seldom very se- 
verely. Adams saw no appearance of any outward 
