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
On the banks of the river Gambia may also be found three nations
of Africans, namely, the Felups, Yolofs, and Foulahs. All these
people are Mahometans, but they have retained the stupid, though
innocent superstitions of their ancestors. The real Mahometans they
call _Kafirs_, which means infidels.
The Felups are of an indolent, melancholy, and slovenly character:
they never pardon an injury, but transfer their hatred to their
children as a sacred inheritance, so that a son must necessarily
avenge the offence received by his father. At their festivals they
drink a quantity of mead, and their drunkenness almost always
produces quarrels: if on these occasions a man lose his life,
his eldest son takes his sandals and wears them every year on
the anniversary of his death, till he have had an opportunity
to avenge it; and the murderer seldom escapes this determined
resentment. The Felups, however, notwithstanding this ferocious
and unruly disposition, have several good qualities; they are
very grateful, have the greatest affection for their benefactors,
and restore whatever is entrusted to their care, with the most
scrupulous fidelity.
The Yolofs are active, powerful, and warlike; they inhabit a part
of the vast territory which extends between the Senegal and that
occupied by the Mandingos on the banks of the Gambia. I shall speak
of them more fully in the description which I shall give of the
Senegal, and in which I shall include some account of the different
people who inhabit its banks.
The Foulahs have a complexion of a rather deep black colour, silky
hair, and small and agreeable features; their manners are mild,
and they love a pastoral and agricultural life. They are dispersed
through several kingdoms on the coast of the river Gambia as
shepherds and farmers; and they pay a tribute to the sovereign
of the country which they cultivate. They are natives of the
kingdom of Bondou, situated between the Gambia and the Senegal,
near Bambouk: they leave their country in large bodies in search
of distant territories, where they can extend their industry; and
after making, what they conceive, a fortune, they return to enjoy
the result of their labours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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