Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa by Mungo Park
page 186 of 456 (40%)
page 186 of 456 (40%)
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a fine sheep given them by the Dooty; and I was fortunate enough to
procure plenty of corn for my horse. Here they blow upon elephants' teeth when they announce evening prayers, in the same manner as at Kemmoo. Early next morning, (July 14th,) having first returned many thanks to our landlord for his hospitality, while my fellow travellers offered up their prayers that he might never want, we set forward, and about three o'clock arrived at Moorja, a large town famous for its trade in salt, which the Moors bring here in great quantities, to exchange for corn and cotton cloth. As most of the people here are Mahomedans, it is not allowed to the Kafirs to drink beer, which they call _Neo-dollo_ (corn spirit) except in certain houses. In one of these I saw about twenty people sitting round large vessels of this beer, with the greatest conviviality, many of them in a state of intoxication. As corn is plentiful, the inhabitants are very liberal to strangers. I believe we had as much corn and milk sent us by different people as would have been sufficient for three times our number; and though we remained here two days, we experienced no diminution of their hospitality. On the morning of the 16th we again set forward, accompanied by a coffle of fourteen asses, loaded with salt, bound for Sansanding. The road was particularly romantic, between two rocky hills; but the Moors sometimes lie in wait here to plunder strangers. As soon as we had reached the open country, the master of the salt coffle thanked us for having staid with him so long, and now desired us to ride on. The sun was almost set before we reached Datliboo. In the evening we had a most tremendous tornado. The house in which we lodged, being flat-roofed, admitted the rain in streams; the floor was soon ankle deep, the fire extinguished, and we were left to pass the night upon some bundles of fire wood, that happened to lie in a corner. |
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