94 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
February "^^^7 Cultivate feveral vegetables, which are not indigenous to 
u—V —j their country, fuch as Tobacco, Water-melons, a fmall fort of 
Kidney-beans, and Flemp, none of which I found growing 
fpontaneoufly. The women make their balkets, and the mats 
which they deep on. The men have great pride in their 
cattle ; they cut their horns in fuch a way as to be able to 
turn them into any fhape they pleafe, and teach them to 
anfwer a whiftle. Some of them ufe an inftrument for this 
purpofe, hmilar to a Bofliman’s pipe. When they wiih their 
cattle to return home, they go a little way from the houfe and 
blow this fmall inftrument, which is made of ivory or bone, 
and fo conftrufted as to be heard at a great diftance, and in 
this manner bring all their cattle home without any difficulty. 
The foil of this country is a blackifti loomy ground, and fo 
extremely fertile, that every vegetable fubftance, whether fown 
or planted, grows here with great luxuriance. 
There are great variations in the climate ; but I had no? 
thermometer to obferve the degrees of heat. It feldom rains ex¬ 
cept in the fummer feafon, when it is accompanied with thunder 
and lightning. The country is, however, extremely well fup- 
plied with water, not only from the high land to the north, 
v/hich furnifties abundance throughout the year, but from 
many fountains of excellent water, which are found in the 
woods. From what I obferved of this country, I am induced 
to believe that it is greatly fuperior to any other known part of 
Africa. 
