In the course of the day Ibrahim desired one of his wives to prepare a warm bath for me. He lodged me in company with an old marabout of Bondou, who had come to this part of the country to officiate as a school-master. He taught the children of the village the Koran. The method of teaching adopted among all the Musulmans of the interior of Africa is to write on small boards verses of the Koran, which are chanted by the scholars as they sit round a large fire. The lesson is written by the master himself, until the scholars are sufficiently advanced to write it themselves. At Cambaya this sort of public school is very well managed: the master maintains the most rigid discipline. The school is attended by girls as well as boys; but the education of females is much neglected. It is thought enough if they know the first verses of the Koran: boys, on the other hand, are required to learn it all by heart, after which a more able master is found for them, and he explains to them the most difficult passages of the sacred book. The scholars, are, in some respects, the servants of their master. They fetch wood and water for him, clean his hut, cultivate his field, and gather in his harvest. The parents of the children make the tutor some little presents of cloth, tabacco, and seed to sow in his garden. The schoolmaster of Cambaya had a high reputation for piety. He was poor and took his meals at the house of the chief, who also sent for me to partake of all their repasts. In the hut of the Bondouké (man of Bondou) I slept on the ground, upon which was spread a mat which Ibrahim had given me. The old marabout every night kindled a fire in his hut, the smoke of which I found exceedingly unpleasant. His religious zeal led him to rouse me every morning at three o’clock, to go to the mosque and return thanks to God; for the old man exercised the two-fold functions of priest and schoolmaster. The Mandingoes were far from being so very devout. They said their prayers in their huts at five or six o’clock. We were often the only persons in the mosque, though the old man used every endeavour to summon the faithful. He complained that the Mandingoes were not sufficiently attentive to prayer. On returning to our hut, I lay down on my mat to rest; but my companion, instead of following my example, spent the rest of the morning at his prayers. The good old man was very kind to me. Ibrahim was not the only person who invited him to eat with him. Many others did the same, and thus, though the old man was poor, he lived very well. I found myself extremely comfortable in the village. The people had become accustomed to my person, and my assiduity in fulfilling my religious duties, banished every suspicion of me. There was, however, one man who persisted in asserting that I was a white. He pretended to speak Arabic, of which he only knew a few words, and those he pronounced so ill that it was with difficulty I could understand him. This vexed me a little,