Niger

fk The first village reached in Ludamar was that
^ vJ of Simbing, where Major Houghton had
halted to write his last letter to the coast. Mungo’s
company, however, made no halt there, but pressed
on towards Jarra. Rocky hills towered to the north.
By a stream Mungo saw wild horses disporting—
horses which the natives hunted for food. At noon
walled Jarra came close enough for Mungo’s eyes
to observe it clearly : a town of houses of stone and
clay, sun-bleached, an Arab town differing very
greatly indeed from the African villages of Kaarta
and Kasson. Mungo was in a new land, where the
proportion of 4 Moorish ’ blood was much higher
than in the south, where the inhabitants considered
themselves definitely a superior race—Saharan
mulattoes, treacherous and debased from the norm
of human kindliness by the rule of life led under the
green flag of their bestial faith.
Hardly had they entered the town than Mungo
was apprised of the fact that here dwelt two
populations—the haughty riders of the waste, the
kingly folk, and the subject negroes. The latter got
hastily out of the way of a passing mulatto horseman.
The whip ruled the blacks in Jarra. It was a very
terrifying city from the point of view of Johnson
and Demba.
Mungo had been given an order for money, to the
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