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



















 -  The kindness of this good old man was remarkable;
he never seemed weary of obliging them, regretted his inability to - Page 387
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 - Page 387 of 587 - First - Home

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The Kindness Of This Good Old Man Was Remarkable; He Never Seemed Weary Of Obliging Them, Regretted His Inability To Do More, And Solicited Them Very Pressingly To Remain With Him Another Day.

They traversed a mountainous country intersected with streams of excellent water, and at noon entered a small, but pleasant

Picturesque village, which was ornamented with noble and shady trees. Here they waited a very short time, and continuing their route, arrived towards evening at a capacious walled town, called Row, wherein they passed the night. In many places, the wall, if it be deserving the name, was no more than twelve or fourteen inches from the ground, and the moat was of similar dimensions. The yard to which they were conducted, shortly after their arrival, was within three or four others, and so intricate were the passages leading to it, that after a stranger gets in, he would be sadly puzzled to find his way out again without a guide. Nevertheless, this was no security against interruption, for the yard was speedily invaded by five or six hundred individuals, who had been induced to visit them from curiosity. As usual, they annoyed the travellers for a long time to the best of their ability, till they completely wearied them out by their importunity and forwardness. They then hung sheets round the door-way of their dwelling, and laid down on their mats; and then only, the natives began to disperse, and left them at their ease.

The governor of the town was a morose, surly, and ill-natured man. He sent them only a few bananas, and a calabash of eggs, which were all stale and unfit to be eaten, so that some of their people were obliged to go supperless to bed. The governor ascribed the badness of his fare to extreme poverty, yet his vanity exacted from their Jenna messengers the most abject method of salutation, with which they were acquainted. These men walked backwards from him several yards, to throw dirt on their heads, and with the dust and filth still clinging to their hair, they were compelled to address the chief with their faces to the ground. The apartment of the travellers unfortunately communicated with his, and the restless tongues of his numerous wives prevented either of the Landers from dosing their eyes long after sunset. In the centre of their yard grew a tree, round which several stakes were driven into the ground. This tree was a fetish tree, and the stakes also fetish, and therefore a strong injunction was issued not to tie the horses to either of them. Calabashes, common articles of earthenware, and even feathers, egg-shells, and the bones of animals; indeed any kind of inanimate substance is made fetish by the credulous, stupid natives, and like the horse-shoe, which is still nailed to the door of the more superstitious of English peasantry, these fetishes are supposed to preserve them from ghosts and evil spirits. It is sacrilege to touch them, and to ridicule them, would be dangerous.

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