During This Time, The Dance Is Conducted With Some Decency, But When Night Approaches, And The Women Take A More Active Part In The Amusement, Their Thin And Short Dresses, And The Agility Of Their Actions Are Little Calculated To Admit Of The Preservation Of Any Decorum.

The following was the nature of the dance; six or seven men joining hands, surrounded one in the centre of the ring, who was dressed in a ludicrous manner, wearing a large black wig stuck full of kowries.

This man at intervals repeated verses, which, from the astonishment and admiration expressed at them by those in the ring, appeared to be extempore. Two performers played on the outside of the ring, one on a large drum, the other on the bandera. The singer in the ring was not interrupted during his recitations, but at the end of every verse, the instruments struck up, and the whole party joined in loud chorus, dancing round the man in the circle, stooping to the ground, and throwing up their legs alternately. Towards the end of the dance, the man in the middle of the ring was released from his enclosure, and danced alone, occasionally reciting verses, whilst the other dancers begged money from the by-standers.

[Footnote: The bandera is made of several cocoa-nut shells, tied together with thongs of goat-skin, and covered with the same material; a hole at the top of the instrument is covered with strings of leather, or tendons, drawn tightly across it, on which the performer plays with the fingers, in the manner of a guitar.]

It has been already stated, that Adams could not form any idea of the population of Timbuctoo, but on one occasion he saw as many as two-thousand assembled at one place. This happened when a party of five hundred men were going out to make war on Bambarra [*]. The day after their departure, they were followed by a great number of slaves, dromedaries, and heiries laden with previsions. Such of these people as afterwards returned, came back in parties of forty or fifty; many of them did not return at all whilst Adams remained at Timbuctoo; but he never heard that any of them had been killed.

[Footnote: This statement, which is in opposition to the usual opinion, that Timbuctoo is a dependency of Bambarra, receives some corroboration from a passage in Isaaco's journal (p. 205.), where a prince of Timbuctoo is accused by the king of Sego, of having, either personally, or by his people, plundered two Bambarra caravans, and taken both merchandise and slaves.]

About once a month, a party of a hundred or more armed men marched out in a similar manner, to procure slaves. These armed parties were all on foot, except the officers; they were usually absent from one week to a month, and at times brought in considerable numbers. The slaves were generally a different race of people from those of Timbuctoo, and differently clothed, their dress being for the most part of coarse white linen or cotton. He once saw amongst them a woman, who had her teeth filed round, it was supposed, by way of ornament, and as they were very long, they resembled crow quills. The greatest number of slaves that Adams recollects to have seen brought in at one time, were about twenty, and these, he was informed, were from a place called Bambarra, lying to the southward and westward of Timbuctoo, which he understood to be the country, whither the aforesaid parties generally went out in quest of them.

The negro slaves brought to Barbary from Timbuctoo appear to be of various nations, many of them distinguished by the make of their persons and features, as well as by their language. Mr. Dupuis recollects an unusually tall stout negress at Mogadore, whose master assured him that she belonged to a populous nation of cannibals. He does not know whether the fact was sufficiently authenticated, but it is certain that the woman herself declared it, adding some revolting accounts of her own feasts on human flesh.

Adams never saw any individual put to death at Timbuctoo, the punishment for heavy offences being generally slavery; for slighter misdemeanours, the offenders are punished with beating with a stick; but in no case is this punishment very severe, seldom exceeding two dozen blows, with a stick of the thickness of a small walking-cane.

The infrequency of the punishment of death in a community, which counts human life amongst its most valuable objects of trade, is not, however, very surprising; and considerable influence must be conceded to the operation of self-interest, as well as to the feelings of humanity, in accounting for this merciful feature, if it be indeed merciful, in the criminal code of the negroes of Soudan.

During the whole of the residence of Adams at Timbuctoo, he never saw any other Moors than those whom he accompanied thither, and the ten by whom they were ransomed; and he understood from the Moors themselves, that they were not allowed to go in large bodies to Timbuctoo. This statement bears on the face of it a certain degree of improbability; but it loses that character when it is considered that Timbuctoo, although it is become, in consequence of its frontier situation, the port, as it were, of the caravans from the north, which could not return across the desert the same season, if they were to penetrate deeper into Soudan, is yet, with respect to the trade itself, probably only the point whence it diverges to Houssa, Tuarick, &c. on the east, and to Walet, Jinnie, and Sego, on the west and south, and not the mart where the merchandise of the caravans is sold in detail. Such Moors, therefore, as did not return to Barbary with the returning caravan, but remained in Soudan until the following season, might be expected to follow their trade to the larger marts of the interior, and to return to Timbuctoo only to meet the next winter's caravans.

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