They Profess To Be Descended From The People Of Nyffee And Houssa, But Their Language Is A Dialect Of The Youribanee; Their Religion Is A Mongrel Mahommedism Grafted Upon Paganism.

Their women are much better looking than those of Youriba, and the men are well made, but have a debauched look; in fact, Lander says, he never was in a place where drunkenness was so general.

They appeared to have plenty of the necessaries of life, and a great many luxuries. Their fruits are limes, plantains, bananas, and several wild fruits; their vegetables, yams and calalow, a plant, the leaves of which are used in soup as cabbage; and their grain are dhourra and maize. Fish they procure in great quantities from the Quorra and its tributaries, chiefly a sort of cat-fish. Oxen are in great plenty, principally in the hands of the Fellatas, also sheep and goats, poultry, honey, and wax. Ivory and ostrich feathers, they said, were to be procured in great plenty, but there was no market for them.

It was at this place that Clapperton had nearly, though innocently, got into a scrape with the old governor by coquetting with a young and buxom widow, and, in fact, Lander himself experienced some difficulty in withstanding the amorous attack of this African beauty; for she acted upon the principle, that, as she could not succeed with the master, there was no obstacle existing that she knew of, to prevent her directing the battery of her fine black sparkling eyes against the servant.

"I had a visit," says Clapperton, "amongst the number, from the daughter of an Arab, who was very fair, called herself a white woman, was a rich widow, and wanted a white husband. She was said to be the richest person in Wawa, having the best house in the town, and a thousand slaves." She showed a particular regard for Richard Lander, who was younger and better-looking than Clapperton; but she had passed her twentieth year, was fat, and a perfect Turkish beauty, just like a huge walking water-butt. All her arts were, however, unavailing on the heart of Lander; she could not induce him to visit her at her house, although he had the permission of his master.

This gay widow appeared by no means disposed to waste any time by making regular approaches, like those by which widow Wadman undermined the outworks, and then the citadel of the unsuspecting uncle Toby, but she was determined at once to carry the object of her attack by storm.

The widow Zuma attempted in the first place to ingratiate herself with the Europeans, by sending them hot provisions every day in abundance, during their stay at Wawa. She calculated very justly, that gratitude is the parent of love, and therefore imagined that as the Europeans could not be otherwise than grateful to her, for the delicacies, with which she so liberally supplied them, it would soon follow as a natural consequence, that their hearts would overflow with love; at all events it was not to be supposed, that both master and man could remain callous to the potency of her corporeal charms. Finding, however, that the hearts of the Europeans were much like the rocks of her native land, perfectly impenetrable, she had recourse to another stratagem, which is generally attended with success.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 294 of 587
Words from 154124 to 154683 of 309561