Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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The Present Inhabitants,
Though Possessing Abundance Of Cattle And Corn, Eat Without Scruple
Rats, Moles, Squirrels, Snakes, Locusts, &C. The
Attendants of Mr.
Park were one evening invited to a feast, where making a hearty meal
of what they thought
To be fish and kouskous, one of them found a
piece of hard skin in the dish, which he brought away with him, to
show Mr. Park what sort of fish they had been eating. On examining
the skin, it was discovered they had been feasting on a large snake.
Another custom, which is rigidly adhered to, is, that no woman is
allowed to eat an egg, and nothing will more affront a woman of Tesee
than to offer her an egg. The men, however, eat eggs without scruple.
The following anecdote will show, that in some particulars the
African and European women have a great resemblance to each other,
and that conjugal infidelity is by no means confined to the latter. A
young man, a kafir of considerable affluence, who had recently
married a young and handsome wife, applied to a very devout Bushreen
or Mussulman priest of his acquaintance, to procure him saphies for
his protection during the approaching war. The Bushreen complied with
his request, and to render the saphies more efficacious, enjoined the
young man to avoid any nuptial intercourse with his bride for the
space of six weeks. The kafir obeyed, and without telling his wife
the real cause, absented himself from her company. In the mean time
it was whispered that the Bushreen, who always performed his evening
devotions at the door of the kafir's hut, was more intimate with the
young wife, than was consistent with virtue, or the sanctity of his
profession. The husband was unwilling to suspect the honour of his
sanctified friend, whose outward show of religion, as is the case
with the priests and parsons of the civilized part of the world,
protected him from even the suspicion of so flagitious an act. Some
time, however, elapsed before any jealousy arose in the mind of the
husband, but hearing the charge repeated, he interrogated his wife on
the subject, who confessed that the holy man had seduced her.
Hereupon the kafir put her into confinement, and called a palaver on
the Bushreen's conduct, which Mr. Park was invited to attend. The
fact was proved against the priest, and he was sentenced to be sold
into slavery, or find two slaves for his redemption, according to the
pleasure of the complainant. The injured husband, however, desired
rather to have him publicly flogged, before Tiggity Sego's gate; this
was agreed to, and the sentence immediately carried into execution.
The culprit was tied by the hands to a strong stake, and the
executioner with a long black rod round his head, for some time
applied it with such dexterity to the Bushreen's back, as to make him
roar until the woods resounded. The multitude, by their looking and
laughing, manifested how much they enjoyed the punishment of the old
gallant, and it is remarkable, that the number of stripes was exactly
the same as enjoined by the Mosaic law, forty, save one.
On the 8th of January, Demba Sego, who had borrowed Mr. Park's horse,
for the purpose of making a small excursion into the country,
returned and informed his father, that he should set out for
Kooniakary early the next day. The old man made many frivolous
objections, and gave Mr. Park to understand, that he must not depart
without paying him the duties to which he was entitled from all
travellers; besides which, he expected some acknowledgment for his
kindness towards him. Accordingly, the following morning Demba Sego,
with a number of people, came to Mr. Park, to see what goods he
intended as a present to the old chief. Mr. Park offered them seven
bars of amber, and five of tobacco, but Demba, having surveyed these
articles, very coolly told him they were not a present suitable to a
man of Tiggity Sego's consequence, and if he did not make him a
larger offering, he would carry all the baggage to his father, and
let him choose for himself. Without waiting for a reply, Demba and
his attendants immediately opened the bundles, and spread the
different articles upon the floor; everything that pleased them they
took without a scruple, and Demba in particular seized the tin box,
which had so much attracted his attention in crossing the river. Upon
collecting the remains of his little fortune, after these people had
left him, Mr. Park found, that as at Joag, he had been plundered of
half, so he was here deprived of half the remainder. Having been
under some obligations to Demba Sego, Mr. Park did not reproach him
for his rapacity, but determined at all events to quit Tesee the
following morning; in the mean while, to raise the drooping spirits
of his attendants, he purchased a fat sheep, and had it dressed for
dinner.
Early in the morning of January the 10th, Mr. Park and his company
left Tesee, and about midday came in sight of the hills in the
vicinity of Kooniakary. Having slept at a small village, the next
morning they crossed a narrow but deep stream, called Krisko, a
branch of the Senegal. Proceeding eastward, about two o'clock they
came in sight of the native town of Jambo, the blacksmith, from which
he had been absent about four years. He was received with the
greatest affection by his relations, but he declared that he would
not quit Mr. Park during his stay at Kooniakary, and they set out for
that place in the morning of the 14th January. About the middle of
the day, they arrived at Soolo, a small village about three miles to
the south of it, where Mr. Park went to visit a slatee, named Salim
Daucari, who had entrusted him with effects to the value of five
slaves, and had given Mr. Park an order for the whole of the debt.
The slatee received his visitors with great kindness.
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