Three days after this distressing delay, Isaaco set out for Sego, and
was brought in safety to the end of the Bambarra dominions. For
further guidance he then hired four promising natives; but, having
landed the party in the midst of a gloomy forest, they grew
superstitious and ran away. "I was much disappointed," says the mild
Isaaco, "at their behavior." More likely he was speechless with
rage.[4] But there was nothing to do but to press on, and that they
did through forest and desert to the lakes of Chicare and Tirium. As
they reached the mud-walled village of Giangounta, one of the fatting
pigs, which were to be given to King Dacha, became too fat to carry.
Isaaco begged the chief of the village to look after it until it could
be fetched, but he objected, "being afraid to take charge of an
unknown animal." However, Isaaco explained all about its ways, wrote a
_grisgris_ to ward off all evil, and dumped it on the still-astonished
hamlet. Thence over more lakes by canoe, through Toucha, where they
found the trees from which African gunpowder was made, and by a great
pyramid with a large stone on its head, where the murderous Moors lie
in wait. Going by night to avoid them, Isaaco did not till day
discover that one of his servants had made off with his box of
jewellery and his one and only _cousaba_. Then he swore as only a
Mohammedan priest can, and rode after the thief. In three days he was
back with the felon, whose death penalty he postponed for a time on
condition that he carried the remaining pig into Sego. At Sannanba,
Isaaco found again the sister and the wife he had left there five
years before. He seems to have quite forgotten them; but they had
faithfully waited his return, knowing that nothing would kill him. It
was from them that he first learnt that Mungo Park was dead. They had
seen Alhaji Beraim,[5] who had been shown the canoe in the country of
Haoussa, where Park met his end. However, Isaaco was determined to go
on and learn for himself on the spot. So he dismissed his sister with
a piece of muslin, took on the wife, and released the prisoner, for
(he says) "I was certain, once in the King's power, he would be put to
death." At Counnow, a little further along the road, Isaaco came upon
"an enormous large tree inhabited by a large number of bats. Another
such tree lies on the west of the village, likewise full of bats; but
what is most extraordinary, the bats of the east constantly go at
night to the west, and return to the east at the approach of day;
those of the west never go to the east. And the natives say their
lawful King (Figuing Coroba who had been driven out to the petty
kingdom of Bambarra) lies upon the west."
Impressing four men of every district to carry the pig to the next,
Isaaco journeyed on through Dedougou, Issicord, and five other
villages, all deserted. At Yamina, one of the women slaves whom Isaaco
had redeemed, and who had followed his expedition, found her long-lost
husband. There was much rejoicing and dancing and exchange of presents
all round. Then after crossing the Niger at Jolliba, they struck Sego
Coro, the ancient palace of the kings, where to that day (and possibly
to this) the King resorted when war was declared, to have his amulets
prepared, and don his forefathers' armor. There, too, the royal
prisoners were wont to be brought for confinement until the fasting
moon, and then cruelly murdered in the House of Death. For eight days
after it was against the law for anyone to pass the house without
putting off his hat and shoes. In the reign of the great warrior-king,
Walloo, not a moon passed without the sacrifice of blood.