At noon, a slave churns the milk to make butter; filling the soucou which holds it with wind, and then shaking it on her lap for a quarter of an hour. When the butter is made, they work it into little balls of the size of a walnut, and add three parts water to the milk, which is set by in calabashes to be distributed at dinner. The balls are put into the portion destined for the women, and they swallow them in drinking; this beverage of milk and water is called _cheni_. The Moors are naturally filthy; and they seem to chuse the dirtiest slave on purpose, to make the butter and apportion the cheni. I have seen the women making the balls of butter with their hands wipe their fingers on their hair, and then plunge them again into the calabash containing the butter and milk. They disgusted me to such a degree by their uncleanly ways, that I have often suffered hunger, rather than accept a drink which they had prepared so filthily. If the slaves are ill treated by the hassanes, those who belong to the marabouts fare still worse. I have mentioned that the hassanes allow them to gather haze for themselves, which tends much to alleviate their condition; the marabouts, on the other hand, make them collect it for them, and give them a very small quantity of it, and that without milk. The herds of the hassanes are less numerous than those of the marabouts; they have hardly ever any thing in their camp but a few cows and oxen; the rest of their cattle, the camels excepted, are entrusted to zenagues, or tributaries, who are responsible for them, and bring them back when they are wanted. Each tribe has a distinct mark for its herds, to which the proprietor adds his own counter-mark. The wooden vessels which they use for milking are made by their workmen; they take a piece of the trunk of a tree of suitable size, cover it with cow-dung except where they mean to hollow it out; then putting fire under it, they blow up the fire with bellows, driving the flame towards the wood; and thus, the dampness of the cow-dung on the outside preventing it from burning too far, the vessel is hollowed. They make wooden funnels also by this process, which is very tedious, but the only one with which they are acquainted.