[2] The text must be here erroneous, as two paces, or ten feet, will scarcely suffice in describing the boa constrictor, sometimes near thirty feet long.--E.
[3] An account of the termites, or white ants of Africa, will appear hereafter. The circumstance of serpents taking up their abode in the large anthills, must be entirely accidental.--E.
The only tame animals in the kingdom of Senegal are oxen, cows, and goats; having no sheep, which love a temperate or cold air, and could not live in this hot climate. Nature, however, has provided mankind with necessaries fitted for their various occasions; having furnished the Europeans with wool, as they have need of warm clothing, while the Negroes, who live in such intense heat, have been supplied with cotton by the Almighty. Owing to the heat, in my opinion, the cattle of this country are much smaller than those of Italy. It is a great rarity to see a red cow in this country, as they are all black or white, or mottled with black and white spots. Beasts of prey, such as lions, leopards, and wolves, are numerous, and there are plenty of hares. Wild elephants go about in troops, like the wild swine in Italy, but can never be tamed, as they are in other parts of the world. As the elephant is a well-known animal, I shall only observe in general, that those of Africa are of a very large size, as may be easily conceived by the size of their teeth, which are imported into Europe. Of these large teeth, or tusks rather, each elephant has two in the lower jaw, the points of which turn down, whereas those of the wild boar are turned up. Before my voyage to Africa I had been told that the elephant could not bend its knee, and slept standing; but this is an egregious falsehood for the bending of their knees can be plainly perceived when they walk, and they, certainly lie down and rise again like other animals. They never shed their large teeth before death; neither do they do any harm to man unless provoked. In that case the elephant makes his attack with his trunk, which is a kind of nose, protruded to a great length. He can contract and extend this proboscis at pleasure, and is able to toss a man with it as far as a sling can throw a stone. It is in vain to think of escape by running, let the person be ever so swift, in case the elephant pursues in earnest, as his strides are of prodigious length. They are more dangerous when they have young ones in their company than at any other time; of which the females have only, three or four at a birth. They feed on the leaves and fruit of trees, pulling down the large boughs with their trunks, and bringing them to their mouths. This trunk is composed of a very thick cartilage, and is pliable in every direction.
There are many kinds of birds in this country, and parrots are particularly numerous, which are much hated by the negroes, because they do much damage to their crops of pulse and millet. There are said to be several kinds of parrots, but I never saw more than two. One of these is like the kind which is brought into Italy from Alexandria in Egypt, but rather smaller. The other kind is much larger, having a brown head, neck, bill, and legs, with a yellow and green body. I procured a considerable number of both sorts, particularly of the smaller kind, many of which died; but I brought 150 back to Portugal, where I sold them for half a ducat each. These birds are very industrious in constructing their nests, which they build with bulrushes and the small leaves of the palm, and other trees, in a very curious and ingenious manner. Choosing the slenderest branch of a tree, the parrot fastens a bulrush of about two spans long to its outer extremity, at the depending end of which rush it weaves its nest in a most beautiful manner, suspended like a ball, and having only one passage for entering. By this means they contrive to preserve their young from being devoured by the serpents, as the small twigs from which the nests are suspended are unable to bear the weight of the serpents. There are likewise abundance of those birds called Pharaoh's hens[4] in Europe, which come to us out of the Levant. They have likewise other birds, both large and small, which are quite different from any that are known in Italy.
[4] Probably the Pintado, or Guinea fowl.--E.
As I was long on shore, I went several times to see their markets or fairs, which were held every Monday and Friday in a meadow, not far from where I resided. The men and women, from four or five miles around, came to this place with their various commodities, and those who lived at a greater distance, went to other markets nearer their habitations. The great poverty of the natives appeared manifest in the goods they brought to these fairs; consisting of small quantities of cotton cloth, and cotton yarn, pulse, oil, millet, wooden tubs, palm matts, and every thing else useful to life, according to their manners, likewise arms, and some small quantities of gold. Having no money or coin of any kind, all their trade was carried on by way of barter, or exchange of one thing for another, sometimes two or three things for one, according to their different values. All these blacks used to gaze on me, as if I had been a prodigy, having never seen a white man before. Some took hold of my hands, which they rubbed with spittle, to see if the whiteness was natural or artificial, and expressed their wonder to find that my skin was not painted. They were as much astonished at my dress, being clothed in the Spanish fashion, with a black damask waistcoat, and a cloak over it: They seemed much surprised at the waistcoat, and greatly admired the woollen cloth, which they had never seen any of before. My chief purpose in going to these fairs, was to see what quantity of gold was brought thither.
Horses are very scarce, and of great value in the country of the Negroes, being brought all the way from that part of Barbary which lies nearest to Europe, by the Arabs and Azanhaji. Owing to the great heat, horses do not live long here; for they grow so fat that they cannot stale, and so burst. They are fed with bean leaves, which are gathered after the beans are brought from the fields; and, being dried like hay, are cut small, and given to the horses instead of oats. They give millet also, which contributes greatly to make them fat. A horse and his furniture sells for from nine to fourteen negroes, according to his goodness and beauty; and when a negro lord buys a horse, he sends for his horse sorcerers, who cause a fire to be kindled of the stalks of certain herbs, and hold the horses head by the bridle over the smoke, while they repeat over some few words by way of incantation. They afterwards have him anointed all over with fine oil, and having kept him eighteen or twenty days, without allowing any one to see him, they affix some Moorish charms to his neck, which have the appearance of small square billets of writing, folded up and covered with red leather; and affirm, that, they will go into battle with greater safety by means of these scrolls or annulets.
The women of this country are very pleasant and merry, especially the young ones, and delight in singing and dancing, taking this diversion only at night by moonlight; and their manner of dancing is very different from that of the Italians. Many things in our ships seemed wonderful to the Negroes, particularly our cross-bows; but much more our artillery. When some of them were on board my ship, I caused one of the guns to be fired off, which threw them into a dreadful panic; and their terror was much increased on being told that one cannon-shot could kill an hundred men. On which account, they alleged that it must be something belonging to the devil. They were likewise greatly astonished at a bag-pipe, which, one of our sailors played upon to divert them; and, on examining the several parts and ornaments of the instrument, they conceived that it was a living animal, which sung in different voices. Observing their simplicity, I told them it was a musical instrument, and put it into their hand unblown to examine. They then perceived that it was a work of art, but believed that it was something supernatural, and could only have been devised by a superior being, it sounded so sweetly, and in so many different tones, having never heard any thing which could be compared to it in their estimation. The ship, also, and its various contrivances, as its anchors, masts, sails, and shrouds, afforded them great subjects for admiration and wonder. They looked upon the port-holes in the stern as real eyes, by which the vessel was able to find her way in the sea; and observed, that travellers on land found difficulty to find the road from one place to another, while we were able to travel along the trackless ocean; and that the whites must therefore be the greatest of sorcerers, not inferior to the devil himself. They shewed great admiration on seeing a lighted candle in a candlestick, having themselves no other artificial light but that proceeding from a fire. They have honey-combs, but when they find these, they suck out the honey, and throw away the empty comb as useless. At one time, I bought some honey-combs from a negro, and shewed him how to extract the honey; after which, on asking him if he knew what remained, he said it was good for nothing: But he was greatly astonished on seeing it made into candles, and lighted in his presence; saying, that the Europeans knew every thing. Their only musical instruments are two, one of which they have from the Moors, which is like a large