On The
Morning Of Their Departure A Bullock Is Killed For The First Day's
Entertainment, And A Number Of Prayers And Charms Are Used To Insure
Success, For A Failure On That Day Is Thought A Bad Omen.
The mansa of Kamalia, with fourteen of his people, were, I remember,
so much disappointed in their first day's washing that very few of
them had resolution to persevere, and the few that did had but very
indifferent success:
Which indeed is not much to be wondered at,
for instead of opening some untried place they continued to dig and
wash in the same spot where they had dug and washed for years, and
where, of course, but few large grains could be left.
The washing of the sands of the streams is by far the easiest way of
obtaining the gold dust; but in most places the sands have been so
narrowly searched before, that unless the stream takes some new
course the gold is found but in small quantities. While some of the
party are busied in washing the sands, others employ themselves
farther up the torrent, where the rapidity of the stream has carried
away all the clay, sand, etc., and left nothing but small pebbles.
The search among these is a very troublesome task. I have seen
women who have had the skin worn off the tops of their fingers in
this employment. Sometimes, however, they are rewarded by finding
pieces of gold, which they call sanoo birro (gold stones), that
amply repay them for their trouble.
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