wrapping myself closely in
a Mandingo dress, stole away through bye-ways to a brook which runs by
the town-walls. Thither the females resort at sunset to draw water;
and, choosing a screened situation, where I would not be easily
observed, I watched, for more than an hour, the graceful children,
girls, and women of Timbo, as they performed this domestic task of
eastern lands.

I was particularly impressed by the general beauty of the sex, who, in
many respects, resembled the Moor rather than the negro. Unaware of a
stranger's presence, they came forth as usual in a simple dress which
covers their body from waist to knee, and leaves the rest of the
figure entirely naked. Group after group gathered together on the
brink of the brook in the slanting sunlight and lengthening shadows of
the plain. Some rested on their pitchers and water vessels; some
chatted, or leaned on each other gracefully, listening to the chat of
friends; some stooped to fill their jars; others lifted the brimming
vessels to their sisters' shoulders--while others strode homeward
singing, with their charged utensils poised on head or hand. Their
slow, stately, swinging movement under the burden, was grace that
might be envied on a Spanish _paseo_. I do not think the forms of
these Fullah girls,--with their complexions of freshest bronze,--are
exceeded in symmetry by the women of any other country. There was a
slender delicacy of limb, waist, neck, hand, foot, and bosom, which
seemed to be the type that moulded every one of them. I saw none of
the hanging breast; the flat, expanded nostrils; the swollen lips, and
fillet-like foreheads, that characterize the Soosoos and their sisters
of the coast. None were deformed, nor were any marked by traces of
disease. I may observe, moreover, that the male Fullahs of Timbo are
impressed on my memory by a beauty of form, which almost equals that
of the women; and, in fact, the only fault I found with them was their
minute resemblance to the feminine delicacy of the other sex. They
made up, however, in courage what they lacked in form, for their manly
spirit has made them renowned among all the tribes they have so long
controlled by distinguished bravery and perseverance.

The patriarchal landscape by the brook, with the Oriental girls over
their water-jars, and the lowing cattle in the pastures, brought
freshly to my mind many a Bible scene I heard my mother read when I
was a boy at home; and I do not know what r