Travels in the Interior of Africa, vol 1 | Page 6

civilised by the mild and benevolent
spirit of Christianity!
The Jaloffs (or Yaloffs) are an active, powerful, and warlike race,
inhabiting great part of that tract which lies between the river Senegal
and the Mandingo states on the Gambia; yet they differ from the
Mandingoes not only in language, but likewise in complexion and
features. The noses of the Jaloffs are not so much depressed, nor the
lips so protuberant, as among the generality of Africans; and although
their skin is of the deepest black, they are considered by the white
traders as the most sightly negroes on this part of the continent.
Their language is said to be copious and significant, and is often learnt
by Europeans trading to Senegal.
The Foulahs (or Pholeys), such of them at least as reside near the

Gambia, are chiefly of a tawny complexion, with soft silky hair, and
pleasing features. They are much attached to a pastoral life, and have
introduced themselves into all the kingdoms on the windward coast as
herdsmen and husbandmen, paying a tribute to the sovereign of the
country for the lands which they hold. Not having many opportunities,
however, during my residence at Pisania, of improving my
acquaintance with these people, I defer entering at large into their
character until a fitter occasion occurs, which will present itself when I
come to Bondou.
The Mandingoes, of whom it remains to speak, constitute, in truth, the
bulk of the inhabitants in all those districts of Africa which I visited;
and their language, with a few exceptions, is universally understood
and very generally spoken in that part of the continent.
They are called Mandingoes, I conceive, as having originally migrated
from the interior state of Manding, of which some account will
hereafter be given.
In every considerable town there is a chief magistrate, called the alkaid,
whose office is hereditary, and whose business it is to preserve order, to
levy duties on travellers, and to preside at all conferences in the
exercise of local jurisdiction and the administration of justice. These
courts are composed of the elders of the town (of free condition), and
are termed palavers; and their proceedings are conducted in the open air
with sufficient solemnity. Both sides of a question are freely canvassed,
witnesses are publicly examined, and the decisions which follow
generally meet with the approbation of the surrounding audience.
As the negroes have no written language of their own, the general rule
of decision is an appeal to ANCIENT CUSTOM; but since the system
of Mohammed has made so great progress among them, the converts to
that faith have gradually introduced, with the religious tenets, many of
the civil institutions of the prophet; and where the Koran is not found
sufficiently explicit, recourse is had to a commentary called Al Sharra,
containing, as I was told, a complete exposition or digest of the
Mohammedan laws, both civil and criminal, properly arranged and
illustrated.
This frequency of appeal to written laws, with which the pagan natives
are necessarily unacquainted, has given rise in their palavers to (what I
little expected to find in Africa) professional advocates, or expounders

of the law, who are allowed to appear and to plead for plaintiff or
defendant, much in the same manner as counsel in the law-courts of
Great Britain. They are Mohammedan negroes, who have made, or
affect to have made, the laws of the prophet their peculiar study; and if
I may judge from their harangues, which I frequently attended, I
believe, that in the forensic qualifications of procrastination and cavil,
and the arts of confounding and perplexing a cause, they are not always
surpassed by the ablest pleaders in Europe. While I was at Pisania, a
cause was heard which furnished the Mohammedan lawyers with an
admirable opportunity of displaying their professional dexterity. The
case was this:- An ass belonging to a Serawoolli negro (a native of an
interior country near the river Senegal) had broke into a field of corn
belonging to one of the Mandingo inhabitants, and destroyed great part
of it. The Mandingo having caught the animal in his field, immediately
drew his knife and cut his throat. The Serawoolli thereupon called a
palaver (or in European terms, brought an action) to recover damages
for the loss of his beast, on which he set a high value. The defendant
confessed he had killed the ass, but pleaded a SET-OFF, insisting that
the loss he had sustained by the ravage in his corn was equal to the sum
demanded for the animal. To ascertain this fact was the point at issue,
and the learned advocates contrived to puzzle the cause in such a
manner that, after a hearing of three days, the court broke up without
coming to any determination upon it; and a second