they have named bassi woolima, and the latter bassiqui. These, together with rice, are raised in considerable quantities; besides which, the inhabitants, in the vicinity of the towns and villages, have gardens which produce onions, calavances, yams, cassavi, ground nuts, pompions, gourds, water melons, and some other esculent plants. I observed likewise, near the towns, small patches of cotton and indigo. The former of these articles supplies them with clothing, and with the latter they dye their cloth of an excellent blue colour, in a manner that will hereafter be described. In preparing their corn for food, the natives use a large wooden mortar called a paloon, in which they bruise the seed until it parts with the outer covering, or husk, which is then separated from the clean corn, by exposing it to the wind ; nearly in the same manner as wheat is cleared from the chaff in England. The corn thus freed from the husk, is returned to the mortar, and beaten into meal; which is dressed variously in different countries ; but the most common preparation of it among the nations of the Gambia, is a sort of pudding, which they call kouskous. It is made by first moistening the flour with water, and then stirring and shaking it about in a large calabash, or gourd, till it adheres together in small granules, resembling sago. It is then put into an earthen pot, whose bottom is perforated with a number of small holes ; and this pot being placed upon another; the two vessels are luted together, either with a paste of meal and water, or with cows' dung, and placed upon the fire. In the lower vessel is commonly some animal food and water, the steam or vapour of which ascends through the perforations in the bottom of the upper vessel, and softens and prepares the kouskous, which is very much esteemed throughout all the countries that I visited. I am informed, that the same manner of preparing flour, is very generally used on the Barbary coast, and that the dish so prepared, is there called by the same name. It is therefore probable, that the Negroes borrowed the practice from the Moors. For gratifying a taste for, variety, another sort of pudding, called nealing, is sometimes prepared from the meal of corn ; and they have also adopted two or three different modes of dressing their rice. Of vegetable food, therefore, the natives have no want; and although the common class of people are but sparingly supplied: with animal food, yet this article is not wholly withheld from them. Their domestic animals are nearly the same as in Europe. Swine are found in the woods, but their flesh is not esteemed : probably the marked abhorrence in which this animal is held by the votaries of Mahomet, has spread itself among the Pagans. Poultry of all kinds (the turkey excepted) is every where to be had. The Guinea fowl and red partridge, abound in the fields ; and the woods furnish a small species of antelope, of which the venison is highly and deservedly prized. Of the other wild animals in the Mandingo countries, the most common are the hyaena, the panther, and the elephant. Considering the use that is made of the.latter in the East Indies, it may be thought extraordinary, that the natives of Africa have not, in any part of this immense continent, acquired the skill of taming this powerful and docile creature, and apply- C a
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