After the boy had
finished this lesson, he pressed the paper against his forehead and
pronounced the word Amen, upon which all the bushreens rose, and,
shaking him cordially by the hand, bestowed upon him the title of
bushreen.
When a scholar has undergone this examination, his parents are
informed that he has completed his education, and that it is
incumbent on them to redeem their son by giving to the schoolmaster
a slave or the price of a slave in exchange, which is always done if
the parents can afford to do it; if not, the boy remains the
domestic slave of the schoolmaster until he can, by his own
industry, collect goods sufficient to ransom himself.
About a week after the departure of Karfa three Moors arrived at
Kamalia with a considerable quantity of salt and other merchandise,
which they had obtained on credit from a merchant of Fezzan, who had
lately arrived at Kancaba. Their engagement was to pay him his
price when the goods were sold, which they expected would be in the
course of a month. Being rigid bushreens, they were accommodated
with two of Karfa's huts, and sold their goods to very great
advantage.
On the 24th of January Karfa returned to Kamalia with a number of
people and thirteen prime slaves whom he had purchased. He likewise
brought with him a young girl whom he had married at Kancaba, as his
fourth wife, and had given her parents three prime slaves for her.
She was kindly received at the door of the baloon by Karfa's other
wives, who conducted their new acquaintance and co-partner into one
of the best huts, which they had caused to be swept and whitewashed
on purpose to receive her.
My clothes were by this time become so very ragged that I was almost
ashamed to appear out of doors, but Karfa, on the day after his
arrival, generously presented me with such a garment and trousers as
are commonly worn in the country.
The slaves which Karfa had brought with him were all of them
prisoners of war; they had been taken by the Bambarra army in the
kingdoms of Wassela and Kaarta, and carried to Sego, where some of
them had remained three years in irons. From Sego they were sent,
in company with a number of other captives, up the Niger in two
large canoes, and offered for sale at Yamina, Bammakoo, and Kancaba;
at which places the greater number of the captives were bartered for
gold dust, and the remainder sent forward to Kankaree.
Eleven of them confessed to me that they had been slaves from their
infancy, but the other two refused to give any account of their
former condition.
