These Courts Are Composed Of The Elders
Of The Town (Of Free Condition), And Are Termed Palavers; And Their
Proceedings
Are conducted in the open air with sufficient solemnity.
Both sides of a question are freely canvassed, witnesses are
publicly
Examined, and the decisions which follow generally meet
with the approbation of the surrounding audience.
As the negroes have no written language of their own, the general
rule of decision is an appeal to ANCIENT CUSTOM; but since the
system of Mohammed has made so great progress among them, the
converts to that faith have gradually introduced, with the religious
tenets, many of the civil institutions of the prophet; and where the
Koran is not found sufficiently explicit, recourse is had to a
commentary called Al Sharra, containing, as I was told, a complete
exposition or digest of the Mohammedan laws, both civil and
criminal, properly arranged and illustrated.
This frequency of appeal to written laws, with which the pagan
natives are necessarily unacquainted, has given rise in their
palavers to (what I little expected to find in Africa) professional
advocates, or expounders of the law, who are allowed to appear and
to plead for plaintiff or defendant, much in the same manner as
counsel in the law-courts of Great Britain. They are Mohammedan
negroes, who have made, or affect to have made, the laws of the
prophet their peculiar study; and if I may judge from their
harangues, which I frequently attended, I believe, that in the
forensic qualifications of procrastination and cavil, and the arts
of confounding and perplexing a cause, they are not always surpassed
by the ablest pleaders in Europe. While I was at Pisania, a cause
was heard which furnished the Mohammedan lawyers with an admirable
opportunity of displaying their professional dexterity. The case
was this:- An ass belonging to a Serawoolli negro (a native of an
interior country near the river Senegal) had broke into a field of
corn belonging to one of the Mandingo inhabitants, and destroyed
great part of it. The Mandingo having caught the animal in his
field, immediately drew his knife and cut his throat. The
Serawoolli thereupon called a palaver (or in European terms, brought
an action) to recover damages for the loss of his beast, on which he
set a high value. The defendant confessed he had killed the ass,
but pleaded a SET-OFF, insisting that the loss he had sustained by
the ravage in his corn was equal to the sum demanded for the animal.
To ascertain this fact was the point at issue, and the learned
advocates contrived to puzzle the cause in such a manner that, after
a hearing of three days, the court broke up without coming to any
determination upon it; and a second palaver was, I suppose, thought
necessary.
The Mandingoes, generally speaking, are of a mild, sociable, and
obliging disposition. The men are commonly above the middle size,
well-shaped, strong, and capable of enduring great labour. The
women are good-natured, sprightly, and agreeable. The dress of both
sexes is composed of cotton cloth of their own manufacture: that of
the men is a loose frock, not unlike a surplice, with drawers which
reach half-way down the leg; and they wear sandals on their feet,
and white cotton caps on their heads. The women's dress consists of
two pieces of cloth, each of which is about six feet long and three
broad. One of these they wrap round their waist, which, hanging
down to the ankles, answers the purpose of a petticoat; the other is
thrown negligently over the bosom and shoulders.
This account of their clothing is indeed nearly applicable to the
natives of all the different countries in this part of Africa; a
peculiar national mode is observable only in the head-dresses of the
women.
Thus, in the countries of the Gambia, the females wear a sort of
bandage, which they call jalla. It is a narrow strip of cotton
cloth wrapped many times round, immediately over the forehead. In
Bondou, the head is encircled with strings of white beads, and a
small plate of gold is worn in the middle of the forehead. In
Kasson the ladies decorate their heads in a very tasteful and
elegant manner with white seashells. In Kaarta and Ludamar, the
women raise their hair to a great height by the addition of a pad
(as the ladies did formerly in Great Britain), which they decorate
with a species of coral brought from the Red Sea by pilgrims
returning from Mecca, and sold at a great price.
In the construction of their dwelling-houses the Mandingoes also
conform to the general practice of the African nations in this part
of the continent, contenting themselves with small and incommodious
hovels. A circular mud wall, about four feet high, upon which is
placed a conical roof, composed of the bamboo cane, and thatched
with grass, forms alike the palace of the king and the hovel of the
slave. Their household furniture is equally simple. A hurdle of
canes placed upon upright sticks, about two feet from the ground,
upon which is spread a mat or bullock's hide, answers the purpose of
a bed; a water jar, some earthen pots for dressing their food; a few
wooden bowls and calabashes, and one or two low stools, compose the
rest.
As every man of free condition has a plurality of wives, it is found
necessary (to prevent, I suppose, matrimonial disputes) that each of
the ladies should be accommodated with a hut to herself; and all the
huts belonging to the same family are surrounded by a fence
constructed of bamboo canes, split and formed into a sort of wicker-
work. The whole enclosure is called a sirk, or surk. A number of
these enclosures, with narrow passages between them, form what is
called a town; but the huts are generally placed without any
regularity, according to the caprice of the owner. The only rule
that seems to be attended to is placing the door towards the south-
west, in order to admit the sea-breeze.
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