a substance in black lumps which looked like opium, C23)
for the purpose of making a liquid into which they dipped
the heads of their arrows. It was with an arrow so prepared
that the elephant, before spoken of, was killed.
The natives of Tombuctoo are a stout, healthy race, and
are seldom sick, although they expose themselves by lying
out in the sun at mid-day, when the heat is almost insupportable
to a white man. It is the universal practice of
both sexes to grease themselves all over with butter produced
from goat’s milk, which makes the skin smooth, and
gives it a shining appearance. This is usually renewed every
day; when neglected, the skin becomes rough, greyish, and
extremely ugly. They usually sleep under cover at night;
but sometimes, in the hottest weather, they will lie exposed
to the night air with little or no covering, notwithstanding
that the fog which rises from the river descends like dew,
and in fact, at that season, supplies the want of rain.
All the males of Tombuctoo have an incision on their
faces from the top of the forehead down to the nose, from
which proceed other lateral incisions over the eyebrows,
into all of which is inserted a blue dye, produced from a
kind of ore which is found in the neighbouring mountains.
The women have also incisions on their faces, but in a different
fashion ; the lines being from two to five in number,
S3
cut on each cheek bone, from the temple straight downwards
; they are also stained with blue. These incisions
being made on the faces of both sexes when they are about
twelve months old, the dyeing material which is inserted in
them becomes scarcely visible as they grow up. (25)
Except the King and Queen and their companions, who
had a change of dress about once a week, the people were
in general very dirty, sometimes not washing themselves for
twelve or fourteen days together. Besides the Queen, who,
as has been already stated, wore a profusion of ivory and
bone ornaments in her hair, some of a square shape and
others about as thick as a shilling, but rather smaller, (strings
of which she also wore about her wrists and ankles) many
of the women were decorated in a similar manner; and
they seemed to consider hardly any favour too great to
be conferred on the person who would make them a present
of these precious ornaments. Gold ear-rings were
much worn. Some of the women had also rings on their
fingers ; but these appeared to Adams to be of brass; and
as many of the latter had letters upon them (but whether
in the Roman or Arabic characters Adams cannot tell) he
concluded both from this circumstance, and from their
workmanship, that they were not made by the Negroes,
but obtained from the Moorish traders.
E