AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 71 
severe in their principles than any other of the Moorish 
tribes in this part of Africa.” 
Mungo Park was then forced to retrace his steps, 
and that through a country devastated by inundation 
and heavy rains. He passed through Mourzan, Kea, 
and Modibon, where he regained his horse; Nyara, 
Sansanding, Samea, and Sai, which is surrounded by a 
deep moat, and protected by high walls with square 
towers ; Jabbea, a large town, from which he perceived 
high mountain ranges, and Taffara, where he was received 
with little hospitality. 
At the village of Soulia, Park begged a handful of 
grain of a “ dooty,” who answered that he had nothing 
to give away. 
“ Whilst I was examining the face of this inhos¬ 
pitable old man, and endeavouring to find out the cause 
of the sullen discontent which was visible in his eye, he 
called to a slave who was working in the corn-field at a 
little distance, and ordered him to bring his spade with 
him. The dooty then told him to dig a hole in the 
ground, pointing to a spot at no great distance. The 
slave with his spade began to dig in the earth, and the 
dooty, who appeared to be a man of very fretful dis¬ 
position, kept muttering to himself until the pit was 
almost finished, when he repeatedly pronounced the words 
ankatod (good for nothing), jankra lemen (a regular 
plague), which expressions I thought applied to myself. 
As the pit had very much the appearance of a grave, I 
thought it prudent to mount my horse, and was about 
to decamp when the slave, who had gone before to the 
village, returned with the corpse of a boy about nine or 
ten years of age, quite naked. The negro carried the 
body by an arm and leg, and threw it into the pit with 
a savage indifference such as I had never seen. As he 
covered the body- with earth the dooty kept repeat¬ 
ing naphula attemata (money lost), whence I concluded 
the boy had been his slave.” 
Mungo Park left Koulikorro, where he had obtained 
food by writing saphics or talismans for the natives, 
upon the 21st of August, and reached Bammakoa, where 
