* TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 183 custom, or tribute, paid him by the Senegal Company's vessels trading in the river, and the French Government establishment at Baquelle, where, as will appear in a subsequent article on Galam, he has of late years acquired considerable influence and authority.

The peace offerings and presents from all those who have any business to transact with the king, or favour to ask from him, although not limited to any particular amount, do not compose the least valuable part of his income: slaves, horses, cattle, poultry, rice, corn, cotton cloths, gold, and indeed all the productions of the country, are incessantly presented as douceurs.

The religion is Mahomedan, but its precepts are not so strictly attended to in Bondoo as in some of the other states of Western Africa.

There are mosques of one kind or other in every town ; some of them, however, are nothing more than small square spaces enclosed with stakes, and kept cleanly swept. Here, as in all the others, prayers are publicly said five times every day ; the usual Mahomedan ceremonies of ablution, &c., are attended to. When praying, they strip off all implements of war, or receptacles of money, tobacco, or snuff, and make use of a string of beads or rosary, which they count frequently after each act of devotion. This