296 
PRODUCTIONS. 
and a number of straggling lints. All the dwellings 
are small square clay-built edifices, thatched with 
the sedgy cyperus and the useful palm-leaf. The 
places more constantly appropriated to sleeping in 
have a small aperture, just large enough to enter, 
over which a grass-mat is suspended internally. Most 
of the natives have various European articles hung 
up about their dwellings, the amount of which is a 
fair index of individual wealth; but as light is as 
scrupulously kept out as if a window-tax were levied 
among them, we had great diflSculty in ascertaining 
what they w'ere. Palm-oil is the staple commodity of 
export, with a few elephants’ teeth, brought from the 
Bailing country. Live stock, goats, sheep, pigs, and 
poultry abound, and form a source of no little wealth 
to the possessors ; time is, however, of so little value 
to these people, that they think nothing of passing 
backwards and forwards several days, before they 
arrange the sale or purchase of a single goat, and 
quite exhaust an Englishman’s patience, especially as a 
preliminary dash is expected before commencing busi- 
ness of the most trifling nature. When not engaged 
in barter, fishing appears to be the most common em- 
ployment; and, as the fish is both abundant and good, 
it forms a large portion of their food, together with 
plantains, instead of yams, which are not so much 
cultivated. That the slave trade has been actively 
prosecuted here, and is still more or less so, is evident, 
