185 
A wedding took place during my stay, but I heard 
only the noise which about fifty women made during 
three nights, in singing and accompanying themselves 
upon kettle-drums, until twelve o'clock. The last night, 
at the moment when the bride passed to the arms of 
her husband, they began to utter sudden and piercing 
cries, as if in distress. These cries were heard at regu- 
lar intervals, in a sort of measure. They clapped their 
hands at the same time, so that they resembled more, a 
band of furies, than an assemblage of women. This 
last scene lasted half an hour, after which the festival 
terminated. 
All the environs of Jenboa present the aspect of a 
desert, being perfectly barren. I rarely found any plant, 
but the seashore furnished me some beautiful shells. 
Learning, on the day I embarked, that we should 
remain still several days at Jenboa, I landed a second 
time, and ordered my tents to be pitched in the out- 
ward inclosure of the town. 
Some good observations which I made, gave me the 
longitude of the place as follows, 35° 12' 15" E. from 
the observatory of Paris. The latitude is 24 Q 7' 6" N. 
and the magnetical declination 9° 36' 58'' W. 
As this town is only forty minutes from the tropic, 
the climate is torrid. During my stay the thermometer 
in the shade rose to 27°* of Reaumur, at noon, on the 
14th of April. On the 11th at noon, in the sun, it 
marked 42°. f I observed that the westerly winds gene- 
rally prevailed, but during some days the wind shifted 
to every point, in the course of the twenty-four hours, 
following the sun's track. 
* 93o Fahrenheit. 
Vol. II. 
f 127° Fahrenheit, 
2 A 
