under his protection. He therefore advised them to let me alone for
the night, assuring them that in the morning I should be sent about
my business. This somewhat appeased their clamour, but they
compelled me to ascend a high seat by the door of the mosque, in
order that everybody might see me, for the people had assembled in
such numbers as to be quite ungovernable, climbing upon the houses,
and squeezing each other, like the spectators at an execution. Upon
this seat I remained until sunset, when I was conducted into a neat
little hut, with a small court before it, the door of which Counti
Mamadi shut, to prevent any person from disturbing me. But this
precaution could not exclude the Moors. They climbed over the top
of the mud wall, and came in crowds into the court, "in order," they
said, "to see me PERFORM MY EVENING DEVOTIONS, AND EAT EGGS." The
former of these ceremonies I did not think proper to comply with,
but I told them I had no objection to eat eggs, provided they would
bring me eggs to eat. My landlord immediately brought me seven
hen's eggs, and was much surprised to find that I could not eat them
raw; for it seems to be a prevalent opinion among the inhabitants of
the interior that Europeans subsist almost entirely on this diet.
When I had succeeded in persuading my landlord that this opinion was
without foundation, and that I would gladly partake of any victuals
which he might think proper to send me, he ordered a sheep to be
killed, and part of it to be dressed for my supper. About midnight,
when the Moors had left me, he paid me a visit, and with much
earnestness desired me to write him a saphie. "If a Moor's saphie
is good," said this hospitable old man, "a white man's must needs be
better." I readily furnished him with one, possessed of all the
virtues I could concentrate, for it contained the Lord's Prayer.
The pen with which it was written was made of a reed; a little
charcoal and gum-water made very tolerable ink, and a thin board