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
Their ordinary arms are sabres, sagayes, and arrows, the last
two of which they throw with great strength and accuracy. Some of
them procure from the Europeans or Negroes musquets or pistols;
but they cannot make use of them for any length of time, because
those which are brought to them from Europe are of a very bad kind;
besides which, the humidity of the climate causes them to be speedily
covered with rust, while the heat spoils the temper of the metal:
they therefore become good for nothing, and there are no workmen
clever enough to repair them.
The Moors are very hospitable: every stranger, of whatever country
or tribe he may be, or whether known to them or not, is kindly
received. If several travellers arrive at any place together, the
inhabitants defray amongst them the expences of their reception. They
all, without distinction, go before a new comer, congratulate him
upon his arrival, assist him in taking off his luggage, and convey
it to a place of security. He is then conducted behind a bush to
pass the night: for it is an invariable custom amongst these people
never to admit a stranger into their tents. When this ceremony is
over, the people sit down around him, and enquire the news of the
country from which he comes; they ask, for example, whether such a
horde have evacuated the spot on which they last encamped, whether
he have met with others on his passage, &c. They then enquire the
motives for and extent of his journey, and ask about the tribe to
which he belongs. They never put any questions about his health till
he has satisfied them on all the other points of their curiosity.
If the stranger do not know any person amongst the horde which he
visits, it is the richest of them who is obliged to shew him the
rights of hospitality; but this is not the case when the travellers
do not come alone. They give to each a large porrenger of milk,
and barley flour steeped in milk porridge or in water, when they
happen to have any. If the visiter be able to read, they confer on
him the honour of saying prayers; and on this occasion the table,
or subordinate priest of the horde, places himself by his side as
master of the ceremonies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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