Having Conducted Me Into Her Hut, She Lighted Up A
Lamp, Spread A Mat On The Floor, And Told Me I Might Remain There
For The Night.
Finding that I was very hungry, she said she would
procure me something to eat.
She accordingly went out, and returned
in a short time with a very fine fish, which, having caused to be
half broiled upon some embers, she gave me for supper. The rites of
hospitality being thus performed towards a stranger in distress, my
worthy benefactress (pointing to the mat, and telling me I might
sleep there without apprehension) called to the female part of her
family, who had stood gazing on me all the while in fixed
astonishment, to resume their task of spinning cotton, in which they
continued to employ themselves great part of the night. They
lightened their labour by songs, one of which was composed
extempore, for I was myself the subject of it. It was sung by one
of the young women, the rest joining in a sort of chorus. The air
was sweet and plaintive, and the words, literally translated, were
these:- "The winds roared, and the rains fell. The poor white man,
faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to
bring him milk, no wife to grind his corn. Chorus. - Let us pity the
white man, no mother has he," &c. &c. Trifling as this recital may
appear to the reader, to a person in my situation the circumstance
was affecting in the highest degree.
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