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 Sultan Himself Had
Neither Much Majesty Nor Cleanliness Of Appearance; He Came To Boo
Khaloom's Tent, Accompanied By Six Or Seven Tibboos, Some Of Them
Really Hideous.
They take a quantity of snuff, both in their mouths
and noses; their teeth were of a deep yellow;
The nose resembles
nothing so much as a round lump of flesh stuck on the face, and the
nostrils are so large, that their fingers go up as far as they can
reach, in order to ensure the snuff an admission into the head. The
watch, compass, and musical snuff-box of one of the party created but
little astonishment; they looked at their own faces in the bright
covers, and were most stupidly inattentive to what would have excited
the wonder of almost any imagination, however savage. Here was "the
os sublime," but the "spiritus intus," the "mens divinior,"
were scarcely discoverable. Boo Khaloom gave the sultan a fine
scarlet bornouse, which seemed a little to animate his stupid
features.
In the evening, they had a dance by Tibboo men, performed in front of
their tents. It is graceful and slow, but not so well adapted to the
male as the female. It was succeeded by one performed by some free
slaves from Soudan, who were living with the Tibboos, enjoying, as
they said, their liberty. It appeared to be most violent exertion;
one man is placed in the middle of a circle, which he endeavours to
break, and each one whom he approaches, throws him off, while he adds
to the impetus by a leap, and ascends several feet from the ground;
when one has completed the round, another lakes his place.
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