About Four O'clock We Stopped At A Small Village,
Where One Of The Negroes Met With An Acquaintance, Who Invited Us To
A Sort Of Public Entertainment, Which Was Conducted With More Than
Common Propriety.
A dish, made of sour milk and meal, called
sinkatoo, and beer made from their corn, was distributed with great
liberality, and the women were admitted into the society, a
circumstance I had never before observed in Africa.
There was no
compulsion - every one was at liberty to drink as he pleased - they
nodded to each other when about to drink, and on setting down the
calabash commonly said Berka ("Thank you"). Both men and women
appeared to be somewhat intoxicated, but they were far from being
quarrelsome.
Departing from thence, we passed several large villages, where I was
constantly taken for a Moor and became the subject of much merriment
to the Bambarrans, who, seeing me drive my horse before me, laughed
heartily at my appearance. "He has been at Mecca," says one, "you
may see that by his clothes;" another asked me if my horse was sick;
a third wished to purchase it, &c., so that, I believe, the very
slaves were ashamed to be seen in my company. Just before it was
dark we took up our lodging for the night at a small village, where
I procured some victuals for myself and some corn for my horse, at
the moderate price of a button; and was told that I should see the
Niger (which the negroes call Joliba, or the Great Water) early the
next day.
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