- Takes The Road For Sibidooloo - Meets With Great
Kindness At A Village Called Kooma; - Is Afterwards Robbed, Stripped, And
Plundered By Banditti.
- The Author's resource and consolation under
exquisite distress.
- He arrives in safety at Sibidooloo._
On my arrival at Taffara, I inquired for the Dooty, but was informed that
he had died a few days before my arrival, and that there was, at that
moment, a meeting of the chief men for electing another, there being some
dispute about the succession. It was probably owing to the unsettled
state of the town, that I experienced such a want of hospitality in it,
for, though I informed the inhabitants that I should only remain with
them for one night, and assured them that Mansong had given me some
kowries to pay for my lodging, yet no person invited me to come in; and I
was forced to sit alone under the Bentang tree, exposed to the rain and
wind of a tornado, which lasted with great violence until midnight. At
this time the stranger, who had assisted me in crossing the river, paid
me a visit, and observing that I had not found a lodging, invited me to
take part of his supper, which he had brought to the door of his hut;
for, being a guest himself, he could not, without his landlord's consent,
invite me to come in. After this, I slept upon some wet grass in the
corner of a court. My horse fared still worse than myself, the corn I had
purchased being all expended, and I could not procure a supply.
Aug. 20th. I passed the town of Jaba, and stopped a few minutes at a
village called Somino, where I begged and obtained some coarse food,
which the natives prepare from the husks of corn, and call _Boo_. About
two o'clock I came to the village of Sooha, and endeavoured to purchase
some corn from the Dooty, who was sitting by the gate, but without
success. I then requested a little food by way of charity, but was told
that he had none to spare. Whilst I was examining the countenance of this
inhospitable old man, and endeavouring to find out the cause of the
sullen discontent which was visible in his eye, he called to a slave who
was working in the corn-field at a little distance, and ordered him to
bring his hoe along with him. The Dooty then told him to dig a hole in
the ground, pointing to a spot at no great distance. The slave, with his
hoe, began to dig a pit in the earth; and the Dooty, who appeared to be a
man of a very fretful disposition, kept muttering and talking to himself
until the pit was almost finished, when he repeated _dankatoo_ (good for
nothing;) _jiankra 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 a corpse of a boy about nine or ten years of
age, quite naked.
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