The Women Dress In The Same
Manner; And, When They Are Very Young, Take Great Delight In Delineating
Figures On Their Necks, Breasts, And Arms, With The Point Of A Hot Needle,
Which Are Never Obliterated, And Which Resemble The Flowers And Ornaments
Which Are Wrought On Silk Handkerchiefs.
The country is excessively hot,
and the heat increases as we go to the south; besides which, we found it
much hotter up the river than at sea, owing to the immense number of trees
with which the country everywhere abounds.
Some of these trees are of very
great dimensions. Near a spring where our sailors were in use to fill our
water casks, not far from the banks of the river, there grew an
exceedingly large tree, but its height was by no means proportional to its
thickness; for, though it measured seventeen cubits in girth near the
ground, its height, by estimation, was only twenty paces. This tree was
hollow, but the branches were very large, avid extended to a great
distance, forming a thick and ample shade. But there were many other trees
much larger than this, by which the richness and fertility of the soil may
be easily conceived; and the country is intersected by numerous streams.
There are many elephants in this country, but the natives are ignorant of
the art of taming these animals, as is practised in other countries. One
day, while we lay at anchor in the middle of the river, we observed three
elephants come out from the wood and walk by the river side, on which we
sent our boat with some of the people towards them, but they immediately
returned into the wood. These were all I ever saw alive; but, sometime
afterwards, Guumi-mensa[2], one of the Negro lords, shewed me a dead young
elephant, which he had killed after a chase of two days. The Negroes hunt
on foot in the woods, using only arrows and assagays, or javelins, which
are all poisoned. When they hunt the elephant they conceal themselves
behind trees, and even sometimes mount to their tops, leaping from one
tree to another in pursuit of the elephant, which, being a large unweildy
animal, is often wounded in many places before it can turn round, or place
itself in a posture of defence; but, in an open field, no person dare
attack one, nor could even the swiftest escape from their pursuit, as I
have been informed by many of the Negroes. The teeth of this dead elephant,
which was shewn me by Guumi-Mensa, one of which still remained in the jaw,
did not exceed three spans long, which distinctly shews that it was quite
young in comparison of those whose teeth are from ten to twelve spans in
length; yet, small as it was for an elephant, we computed that the weight
of its carcass was equal to five or six oxen. Guumi-Mensa made me a
present of what part of this elephant I liked best, and gave the remainder
to his huntsmen to feast on.
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