Having Conducted Me Into Her Hut,
She Lighted Up A Lamp, Spread A Mat On The Floor, And Told Me I Might
Remain There For The Night.
Finding that I was very hungry, she said she
would procure me something to eat.
She accordingly went out, and returned
in a short time with a very fine fish; which having caused to be half
broiled upon some embers, she gave me for supper. The rites of
hospitality being thus performed towards a stranger in distress, my
worthy benefactress (pointing to the mat, and telling me I might sleep
there without apprehension) called to the female part of her family, who
had stood gazing on me all the while in fixed astonishment, to resume
their task of spinning cotton; in which they continued to employ
themselves great part of the night. They lightened their labour by songs,
one of which was composed extempore; for I was myself the subject of it.
It was sung by one of the young women, the rest joined in a sort of
chorus. The air was sweet and plaintive, and the words, literally
translated were these:
"The winds roared, and the rains fell.
The poor white man, faint and weary,
Came and sat under our tree.
He has no mother to bring him milk;
No wife to grind his corn."
_Chorus_, "Let us pity the white man:
No mother has he," &c. &c.
Trifling as this recital may appear to the reader, to a person in my
situation, the circumstance was affecting in the highest degree.
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