AFIll CAN EXPL ORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTUR Y. 181 
tying up liis neatly-stained pouches, shoes, knife- 
scabbards, &c. (the work of his handicraft), in a large 
kotakoo or bag ; while the crier at the mosque, with the 
melancholy call of £ Alla Akbar,’ uttered at measured 
intervals, summoned the devots Moslems to their evening 
devotions.” 
The traveller now passed through Ivoufoula, where he 
was very kindly received, crossed a pleasant undulating 
district shut in by the Kouranko hills, and halted at 
Simera, where the chief ordered his “ guiriot ” to cele- 
NATIVE BLACKSMITHS. 
brate in song the arrival of his guest, a welcome 
neutralised by the fact that the house assigned to Laing 
let in the rain through its leaky roof and would not let 
out the smoke, so that, to use his own words, he was 
more “ like a chimney-sweeper,” than the white guest of 
the King of Simera. 
Laing afterwards visited the source of the Tongolelle, 
a tributary of the Rokelle, and then left Kooranko to 
enter Soolimana. Komia, N. lat. 9° 22', is the first 
town in Soolimana. Laing then visited Semba, a 
wealthy and populous city, where he was received by 
a band of musicians, who welcomed him with a deafen- 
