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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Very Differently Is It Constituted With The Canine Species; For Here
The Dog Is Treated With Respect, And Made The Companion Of Man; Here
He Has Collars Round His Neck, Of Various Colours, And Ornamented
With Kowries; He Sits By His Master, And Follows Him In All His
Journeys And Visits.
The great man is never without one; and it
appeared to Lander that a boy was appointed to take care of him.
In
no other country in Africa is this faithful animal treated with
common humanity.
The general character of the people of Eyeo appears to be good and
amiable, and, as a proof of their honesty, to which all the
travellers bore ample testimony, they had now travelled sixty miles
in eight days, with a numerous and heavy baggage, and about ten
different relays of carriers, without losing so much as the value of
a shilling, public or private; a circumstance evincing not only
somewhat more than common honesty in the inhabitants, but a degree of
subordination and regular government, which could not have been
supposed to exist among a people hitherto considered as barbarous. It
appears, however, that the Eyeo captain, Adamooli, had not quite so
high an opinion of their spontaneous honesty; for he told the
travellers, at Puka, to keep a good look-out after their things, as
the people there were great thieves.
In some branches of the arts they possess an extraordinary skill.
They are great carvers; their doors, drums, and every thing of wood
being carved. In the weaving of cloth and linen they also evinced
considerable skill. Eight or ten looms were seen at work in one
house; in fact it was a regular manufactory. Captain Clapperton
visited several cloth manufactories, and three dye-houses, with
upwards of twenty vats in each, all in full work. The indigo is of
excellent quality, and the cloth of a good texture; some of it very
fine. The women are the dyers, the boys the weavers, the men, in
general, lookers on. The loom and shuttles are on the same principle
as the common English loom, but the warp is only four inches wide.
They also manufacture earthen-ware, but prefer that of Europe, which
they obtain from Badagry. In walking through the town, the strangers
were followed by an immense crowd, but met with not a word nor a look
of disrespect. The men took off their caps as they passed, and the
women remained kneeling. The market was well supplied with raw
cotton, cloths, oranges, limes, plantains, bananas, onions, pepper,
and gums for soup, boiled yams, and acassous, a paste made of maize
and wrapped in leaves.
A country finely cleared, and diversified with hill and dale, extends
from Jannah to Tshow, distant two short stages. The route then again
entered upon a thickly-wooded tract, with only patches of corn land,
and the roads were dreadfully bad, being partially flooded by heavy
rains. Captain Clapperton here caught a fresh cold, and all the
patients became worse.
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