A voyage to Senegal : $b or, Historical, philosophical, and political memoirs, relative to the discoveries, establishments and commerce of Europeans in the Atlantic Ocean, from Cape Blanco to the river of Sierra LeoneDurand, Jean Baptiste Léonard
History
A voyage to Senegal : $b or, Historical, philosophical, and political memoirs, relative to the discoveries, establishments and commerce of Europeans in the Atlantic Ocean, from Cape Blanco to the river of Sierra Leone
Durand, Jean Baptiste Léonard
Africa, Northwest; Senegal -- Description and travel
They have no knowledge of cultivating land. The person who is charged
with the labour, repairs to a spot which appears most moistened by
rain, and scatters indifferently the seeds of millet, barley, and
wheat, which he covers by drawing over them a plough harnessed to a
camel. This implement, without breaking the ground, makes a simple
furrow at its surface. If the subsequent rains promote the growth
of the seed, each person takes the portion that belongs to him,
and retires to his camp. Sometimes, instead of waiting till the
grain comes to maturity, they cut it down and dry it on hot ashes,
by which they deprive themselves of an abundant harvest, as well
as of the straw that would feed their horses. But the Moors have
no regard for futurity; they think only of the present.
Their common course of provisions is millet, barley, wheat, milk,
honey, locusts, and wild animals. They make no use of poultry
or domestic animals, except at the last extremity, or on solemn
occasions, such as the visits of princes or distinguished friends,
the birth of sons, marriages, or deaths. They pass alternately from
abstinence to voracity. Their religion subjects them to frequent
and rigorous fasts: in their travels they endure hunger and thirst;
but when they find an opportunity of satisfying their appetite,
they eat at a single meal more than three Europeans, and drink in
proportion. Several of them, particularly the kings and great people,
deprive themselves of wine, either from a religious principle or by
way of example. But those who have connections with the Europeans are
less scrupulous, and drink inordinate quantities of wine and brandy.
These people are almost always at war; frequently among themselves,
but oftener with the Negroes. In battle, those who are mounted on
horses are hidden in clouds of dust; but the camel, whose pace is
heavy, though it takes long steps, is scarcely less useful than
the horse: for, animated by the shouting of its rider, it dashes
amongst the crowd, and produces more carnage by its bites than is
effected by the musquetry. The Moors never make their attack in
order of battle; but as many men as there happen to be, so many
separate combats take place; and he who throws his adversary to
the ground, seizes on his arms, and retires precipitately with the
fruit of his conquest; but if the person conquered be a Negro, he is
detained and made a slave. On some occasions two combatants of equal
strength will give each other several stabs with their poniards,
and then reciprocally tear out their entrails with their nails.
Such incursions generally ruin one party or the other. Those who
possessed a considerable stock of cattle, are reduced in one day to
the most dreadful misery, and despoiled by others, who, the evening
before, had no property at all. The weaker tribes are of course
the most exposed, and therefore take care to live at a distance
from the others, especially from the Wadelims and Labdessebas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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