During The Night Some Thieves
Broke Into The Hut Where I Had Deposited My Baggage, And Having Cut Open
One Of My Bundles, Stole A Quantity Of Beads, Part Of My Clothes, And
Some Amber And Gold; Which Happened To Be In One Of The Pockets.
I
complained to my protectors, but without effect.
The next day (Feb. 14th)
was far advanced before we departed from Marina, and we travelled slowly,
on account of the excessive heat, until four o'clock in the afternoon,
when two Negroes were observed sitting among some thorny bushes at a
little distance from the road. The king's people, taking it for granted
that they were runaway slaves, cocked their muskets, and rode at full
speed in different directions through the bushes, in order to surround
them, and prevent their escaping. The Negroes, however, waited with great
composure until we came within bowshot of them, when each of them took
from his quiver a handful of arrows, and putting two between his teeth,
and one in his bow, waved to us with his hand to keep at a distance upon
which one of the king's people called out to the strangers to give some
account of themselves. They said that "they were natives of Toorda, a
neighbouring village, and had come to that place to gather _tomberongs_."
These are small farinaceous berries, of a yellow colour and delicious
taste, which I knew to be the fruit of the _rhamnus lotus_ of Linnaeus.
The Negroes showed us two large baskets full, which they had collected in
the course of the day. These berries are much esteemed by the natives,
who convert them into a sort of bread, by exposing them for some days to
the sun, and afterwards pounding them gently in a wooden mortar, until
the farinaceous part of the berry is separated from the stone. This meal
is then mixed with a little water, and formed into cakes; which, when
dried in the sun, resemble in colour and flavour the sweetest
gingerbread. The stones are afterwards put into a vessel of water, and
shaken about so as to separate the meal which may still adhere to them;
this communicates a sweet and agreeable taste to the water, and, with the
addition of a little pounded millet, forms a pleasant gruel called
_fondi_, which is the common breakfast in many parts of Ludamar, during
the months of February and March. The fruit is collected by spreading a
cloth upon the ground, and beating, the branches with a stick.
The lotus is very common in all the kingdoms which I visited; but is
found in the greatest plenty on the sandy soil of Kaarta, Ludamar, and
the northern parts of Bambarra, where it is one of the most common shrubs
of the country. I had observed the same species at Gambia. The leaves of
the desert shrub are, however, much smaller; and more resembling, in that
particular, those represented in the engraving given by Desfontaines, in
the Memoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, 1788, p. 443.
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