The usual diet of the negroes is somewhat different in different districts; in general the people of free condition breakfast about daybreak upon gruel made of meal and water, with a little of the fruit of the tamarind to give it an acid taste.  About two o’clock in the afternoon a sort of hasty pudding, with a little shea butter, is the common meal; but the supper constitutes the principal repast, and is seldom ready before midnight.  This consists almost universally of kouskous, with a small portion of animal food or shea butter mixed with it.  In eating, the kafirs, as well as Mohammedans, use the right hand only.

The beverages of the pagan negroes are beer and mead, of each of which they frequently drink to excess.  The Mohammedan convert drinks nothing but water.  The natives of all descriptions take snuff and smoke tobacco; their pipes are made of wood, with an earthen bowl of curious workmanship.  But in the interior countries the greatest of all luxuries is salt.  It would appear strange to a European to see a child suck a piece of rock salt as if it were sugar.  This, however, I have frequently seen, although, in the inland parts, the poorer class of inhabitants are so very rarely indulged with this precious article that to say a man ate salt with his victuals is the same as saying he is a very rich man.  I have myself suffered great inconvenience from the scarcity of this article.  The long use of vegetable food creates so painful a longing for salt that no words can sufficiently describe it.

The negroes in general, and the Mandingoes in particular, are considered by the whites on the coast as an indolent and inactive people—­I think without reason.  The nature of the climate is, indeed, unfavourable to great exertion; but surely a people cannot justly be denominated habitually indolent whose wants are supplied, not by the spontaneous productions of nature, but by their own exertions.  Few people work harder, when occasion requires, than the Mandingoes; but not having many opportunities of turning to advantage the superfluous produce of their labour, they are content with cultivating as much ground only as is necessary for their own support.  The labours of the field give them pretty full employment during the rains; and in the dry season the people who live in the vicinity of large rivers employ themselves in fishing.  The fish are taken in wicker baskets or with small cotton nets, and are preserved by being first dried in the sun and afterwards rubbed with shea butter, to prevent them from contracting fresh moisture.  Others of the natives employ themselves in hunting.  Their weapons are bows and arrows; but the arrows in common use are not poisoned. {6} They are very dexterous marksmen, and will hit a lizard on a tree, or any other small object, at an amazing distance.  They likewise kill guinea-fowls, partridges, and pigeons, but never on the wing.  While the men are occupied in these pursuits the women are very diligent