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 Church Service Was Read This Morning Agreeably To Their General
Custom.
The natives, of whose society they were never able to rid
themselves, seemed to attach great awe and reverence
To their form of
worship, for they had made them understand what if they were going
about, which induced them to pay a high degree of silent attention to
the ceremony, and set at rest for the time, that peculiar continuous
laugh by which they are distinguished from their neighbours. In the
afternoon, or as the natives express it, when the sun had lost its
strength, they departed from the town of Bidjie, accompanied by its
good natured, happy governor, and in a very few minutes afterwards
reached the banks of a rivulet called Yow. Butterflies were here more
numerous than could be imagined, millions of them fluttered around
them, and literally hid from their sight every thing but their own
variegated and beautiful wings.
Here on the banks of the Yow they took a last farewell of the
affectionate old chief, who implored the "Great God," to bless them,
and as the canoes in which they had embarked moved from the spot, a
loud long laugh, with clapping of hands from the lower classes,
evinced the satisfaction they felt at having seen the white men, and
their hearty wishes for their welfare.
The Yow is an extremely narrow rivulet, not more than a few feet in
breadth, and flows in a serpentine direction through a flat country,
covered with rushes, and tall, rank grass. Crocodiles are said to
resort here in great numbers, indeed the low bark or growl of these
rapacious animals was heard distinctly, and in some instances quite
close to them; after they had been pushed along against the stream by
poles for five or six miles, between four and five o'clock in the
afternoon they landed at a narrow creek, which ran a little way into
a thick and gloomy forest. They had not proceeded more than two
hundred yards on the pathway, when they were met by a messenger from
Jenna, who informed them that the owners of all the horses in the
town, had ridden out to welcome their chief, and escort him to his
residence, so that they should be obliged to walk the remainder of
the way. A few minutes, however, only had elapsed before they
descried a horse approaching them in the path, this was a goodly
sight to them, who were already becoming wearied and sore with the
exertions they had made during the day, for they did not reflect a
moment that the animal might not after all be for their use.
However, they soon met, and the rider immediately declared that he
had left Jenna purposely on their account. The head of the horse was
loaded with charms and fetishes, enveloped in pieces of red and blue
cloth. His saddle was of Houssa manufacture, and uncommonly neat; in
the interior such an article is only used by the principal people,
and his bridle also was of curious workmanship.
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