On the 1st of August, I went with one of my companions to pay a visit to the almamy. We entered an apartment, which served the double purpose of stable and bedchamber, with the royal bed at the further end; this bed was a platform, six inches high, six or seven feet long, and five or six wide, upon which was spread an ox-hide, with a dirty musquito-curtain to keep off the insects. The room might be thirty or thirty-five feet long, and ten or twelve wide; it is constructed of earth, which they have not taken the trouble to make into bricks; the walls are seven, or seven feet and a half high, and a foot thick; the roof is supported upon wooden posts, planted within the side walls, and covered with straw; there are three entrances, the doors of which are also formed of straw. No furniture is visible in this royal apartment; but there were two saddles hanging up against the wall from the posts, a great straw hat, a drum, which is only used in time of war, some lances, a bow, quiver, and arrows; these were all its ornaments, excepting a lamp, formed of a piece of iron, supported upon another piece of the same metal, stuck into the ground: vegetable butter, which has not consistency enough to be made into candles, is burnt in this lamp. Two other apartments, of the same dimensions, serve as magazines for the produce of the fields and other valuables. The large inner enclosure contains several common huts, in which I saw some looms like those employed on the coast. The old prince was lying down on his bed, and he made us sit by him. He was saying his prayers, and held in his hand a rosary two feet and a half long, the beads of which were as large as bullets; he appeared very attentive. He addressed his conversation to me, and begged me to make his compliments to the elders of Mecca and Medina when I arrived there; after which he asked me to wait a moment. He went out into the court and returned immediately followed by a slave carrying on her head a calabash of rice, with some disagreeable herb sauce, which he gave me; he then dismissed me, promising that he would soon find me an opportunity for me to go to Jenné. The absence of salt rendered this rice unpleasant; but I had now ceased to be dainty, for hunger is sauce to all sorts of food, as I have often experienced in the course of my travels. Shortly after a Mandingo sent me an excellent dish of rice cooked with milk.