Niger

The light flickered in the crude lamp as the
women fell to their task, presently breaking into a
sweet and plaintive song on Mungo and his con¬
dition :
The winds roared and the rains fell ;
The poor white man, faint and weary,
Came and sat under our tree.
He has no mother to bring him milk,
JVb wife to grind his corn
Cho. : Let us pity the white man,
No mother has he.
Mungo turned his face to the wall and wept.
He stayed three days in that village by Niger-
bank, waiting for Mansong’s messenger to return.
The villagers presently lost their fear of him, and
came and gossiped sympathetically. From them
Mungo learned that the Moors and slatis in Sego
were already plotting against him, suggesting to
Mansong that he was a spy. On the forenoon of
July the 22nd, a tardy messenger arrived from the
Bambarran court. Where were Mungo s presents
for the king ?
In Ludamar, retorted Mungo, stolen from him by
the Moors. The messenger retired abashed.
Next afternoon another came. He brought in his
hand a bag which he handed to Mungo together
with the king’s message. The latter was that Mungo
was to depart at once from Sego. The bag con¬
tained a present of five thousand cowries, sufficient
to pay for the provisioning of Mungo and his horse
through a period of nearly two months.
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