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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Even Then, He Dared
Not Move Without Their Permission.
It was reported, and generally
believed, that he put to death his brother and two of his sons.
Through him the greater part of the industrious population of Nyffee
had either been killed, sold as slaves, or had fled from their native
country.
Lander considered that it would have been an act of charity
to have removed him altogether.
The sanson, or camp, was a large collection of bee-hive-shaped
huts, arranged in streets, and thatched with straw. But for the
number of horses feeding, and some picketed near the huts, the men
being all seen armed, and the drums beating, it might have been taken
for a populous and peaceful village. Here were to be seen weavers,
tailors, women spinning cotton, others reeling it off; some selling
foofoo and accassons, others crying yams and paste; little
markets at every green tree; holy men counting their beads, and
dissolute slaves drinking wabum, palm wine. The king, when the
travellers went to take leave of him, was found in his hut,
surrounded by Fellatas, one of whom was reading the Koran aloud for
the benefit of the whole, the meaning of which not one of them
understood, not even the reader. It is by no means an uncommon
occurrence, both in Bornou and Houssa, for a man to be able to read
the Koran fluently, who does not understand a word in it but Allah,
and who is unable to read any other book.
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