ABSTRACT
The well was from fifteen to eighteen feet in depth, and the water it contained clear and pleasant to the taste. It had no enclosure, and near it was a great hole, forming a pond, into which the negresses throw the water in which they wash their clothes. Although this water was very dirty, both men and women washed their faces in it every morning; and many persons belonging to our company followed their example. In the neighbourhood of Saraclé there are some mimosas, and a great quantity of cés and nédés. Many traders from Ségo, and other adjacent places, attended the market. From some of these people I learned that the capital of Bambara was four days’ journey N. N. W. of Saraclé. I sold in the market some glass wares, and some pieces of coloured calico, between eighteen and twenty inches long and four broad, for three hundred cowries each, (equal to one franc and fifty centimes). The women rolled these pieces of cloth round their heads, drawing them rather forward upon the brow. They wear no other kind of headdress.
