The natives of all descriptions take snuff, and smoke tobacco;
their pipes are made of wood, with an earthen bowl of curious
workmanship.
But in the interior countries, the greatest of all luxuries
is salt. It would appear strange to an European, to see a child suck a
piece of rock-salt as if it were sugar. This, however, I have frequently
seen; although, in the inland parts, the poorer class of inhabitants are
so very rarely indulged with this precious article, that to say _a man
eats salt with his victuals_, is the same as saying _he is a rich man_. I
have myself suffered great inconvenience from the scarcity of this
article. The long use of vegetable food creates so painful a longing for
salt, that no words can sufficiently describe it.
The Negroes in general, and the Mandingoes in particular, are considered
by the whites on the Coast as an indolent and inactive people; I think
without reason. The nature of the climate is, indeed, unfavourable to
great exertion; but surely a people cannot justly be denominated
habitually indolent, whose wants are supplied, not by the spontaneous
productions of nature, but by their own exertions. Few people work
harder, when occasion requires, than the Mandingoes; but not having many
opportunities of turning to advantage the superfluous produce of their
labour, they are content with cultivating as much ground only as is
necessary for their own support. The labours of the field give them
pretty full employment during the rains; and in the dry season, the
people who live in the vicinity of large rivers employ themselves chiefly
in fishing.
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