The Slave, With
His Hoe, Began To Dig A Pit In The Earth, And The Dooty, Who
Appeared To Be
A man of very fretful disposition, kept muttering and
talking to himself until the pit was almost finished, when he
Repeatedly pronounced the words "dankatoo" ("good for nothing") -
"jankra lemen" ("a real plague") - which expressions I thought could
be applied to nobody but myself; and 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 before gone into the
village, to my surprise returned with the corpse of a boy about nine
or ten years of age. quite naked. The negro carried the body by a
leg and an arm, and threw it into the pit with a savage indifference
which I had never before seen. As he covered the body with earth,
the dooty often expressed himself, "naphula attiniata" ("money
lost"), whence I concluded that the boy had been one of his slaves.
Departing from this shocking scene, I travelled by the side of the
river until sunset, when I came to Koolikorro, a considerable town,
and a great market for salt. Here I took up my lodging at the house
of a Bambarran, who had formerly been the slave of a Moor, and in
that character had travelled to Aroan, Towdinni, and many other
places in the Great Desert; but turning Mussulman, and his master
dying at Jenne, he obtained his freedom and settled at this place,
where he carries on a considerable trade in salt, cotton cloth, &c.
His knowledge of the world had not lessened that superstitious
confidence in saphies and charms which he had imbibed in his earlier
years, for when he heard that I was a Christian, he immediately
thought of procuring a saphie, and for this purpose brought out his
walha, or writing-board, assuring me that he would dress me a supper
of rice if I would write him a saphie to protect him from wicked
men.
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