the village, that nobody thought of eating more than one meal a day, and the night was chosen for the purpose, because the negroes would rather go without food all day than retire to rest without supper. On the 31st of July, at six in the morning, the almamy, recollecting probably that he had given us nothing the day before, sent us some rice for breakfast. A good saracolet, belonging to the caravan which had just arrived, and who had travelled often to Jenné, brought me some rice and milk, which he begged me to accept: I gave him some glass ware in return for his present. He was acquainted with many Moorish merchants at Jenné, and assured me I should be well received by them. This negro spoke a little Arabic; he told me, that on my road to Jenné I should find provisions very scarce, salt in particular. The son of the almamy came every now and then to see us, and to inquire whether we wanted warm water for our ablutions; he took care that we should never be short of _water_, but as to provisions, he did not inquire very particularly, and I suspect that the poor devil was little better off than ourselves; I noticed that he passed the whole day without food, as if it had been the Ramadan, and at night, after prayer, he ate a little tau with four other negroes. In spite of these compulsory fasts, they all seemed very merry, and never failed to go every morning to chant the Koran; the almamy himself also chanted from time to time. His son came sometimes to offer me his scanty supper, which I always refused, knowing that he had nothing else for himself.