On our return to the hut, he begged me, in the presence of the Mandingo, to examine my baggage once more. After various useless searches, long discussions, and many goings and comings, the razor was at length found in the millet jar, where I am certain it had been that moment put, in the hope of persuading me that it had not been stolen but mislaid. Lamfia wished to restore it to me, but I would not take it, telling him that I wished to have at the same time, all the things I had lost. At this observation he appeared very much disconcerted. Two old men advised me to complain to the chief, if the thief did not immediately restore every thing he had taken. I seized the idea, and threatened to adopt it. He was alarmed, and requested me to wait a little. After a moment’s reflexion he observed, that as I had been robbed under his roof, and as my person and property had been entrusted to his care by the chief of Cambaya, I was under his responsibility, and he therefore considered himself bound to make good whatever I had lost. On this condition I promised silence; but, finding that he was in no hurry to keep his word, and fearing to be plundered a third time, I followed the advice of several old men, who accompanied me to the chief of the district, to beg of him to give me a lodging, until an opportunity should occur for travelling across the forest of Wassoulo. Lamfia, who accompanied us, carried my sack. He had already several times proposed to go to the mansa, to submit to an ordeal, which consisted in passing a red-hot iron across the tongue. The person accused is acquitted if the iron do not burn him, but in that case the accuser is obliged to submit to the same ordeal. Judgment is pronounced against the party who refuses to undergo the operation. If it be the prosecutor, he must make reparation by giving the accused a present; if the latter, he must restore the value of what he is thus found guilty of stealing. This absurd custom, which ignorance has established, prevails throughout the whole of western Africa.