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Three days' travelling brought him to Medina, where he found the old king sitting on a bullock's hide,
warming himself before a large fire. He begged the English explorer to turn back and not to travel into the
interior, for the people there had never seen a white man and would most certainly destroy him. Mungo Park
CHAPTER XLVIII 164
was not so easily deterred, and taking farewell of the good old king, he took a guide and proceeded on his
way.
A day's journey brought him to a village where a curious custom prevailed. Hanging on a tree, he found a sort
of masquerading dress made out of bark. He discovered that it belonged to a strange bugbear known to all the
natives of the neighbourhood as Mumbo Jumbo. The natives or Kafirs of this part had many wives, with the
result that family quarrels often took place. If a husband was offended by his wife he disappeared into the
woods, disguised himself in the dress of Mumbo Jumbo, and, armed with the rod of authority, announced his
advent by loud and dismal screams near the town. All hurried to the accepted meeting-place, for none dare
disobey. The meeting opened with song and dance till midnight, when Mumbo Jumbo announced the
offending wife. The unlucky victim was then seized, stripped, tied to a post, and beaten with Mumbo's rod
amid the shouts of the assembled company.
A few days before Christmas, Park entered Fatticonda--the place where Major Houghton had been robbed and
badly used. He therefore took some amber, tobacco, and an umbrella as gifts to the king, taking care to put on
his best blue coat, lest it should be stolen. The king was delighted with his gifts; he furled and unfurled his
umbrella to the great admiration of his attendants. "The king then praised my blue coat," says Park, "of which
the yellow buttons seemed particularly to catch his fancy, and entreated me to give it to him, assuring me that
he would wear it on all public occasions. As it was against my interests to offend him by a refusal, I very
quietly took off my coat--the only good one in my possession--and laid it at his feet." Then without his coat
and umbrella, but in peace, Park travelled onward to the dangerous district which was so invested with
robbers that the little party had to travel by night. The howling of wild beasts alone broke the awful silence as
they crept forth by moonlight on their way. But the news that a white man was travelling through their land
spread, and he was surrounded by a party of horsemen, who robbed him of nearly all his possessions. His
attendant Johnson urged him to return, for certain death awaited him. But Park was not the man to turn back,
and he was soon rewarded by finding the king's nephew, who conducted him in safety to the banks of the
Senegal River.
Then he travelled on to the next king, who rejoiced in the name of Daisy Korrabarri. Here Mungo learnt to his
dismay that war was going on in the province that lay between him and the Niger, and the king could offer no
protection. Still nothing deterred the resolute explorer, who took another route and continued his journey.
Again he had to travel by night, for robbers haunted his path, which now lay among Mohammedans. He
passed the very spot where Houghton had been left to die of starvation in the desert. As he advanced through
these inhospitable regions, new difficulties met him. His attendants firmly refused to move farther. Mungo
Park was now alone in the great desert Negroland, between the Senegal and the Niger, as with magnificent
resolution he continued his way. Suddenly a clear halloo rang out on the night air. It was his black boy, who
had followed him to share his fate. Onward they went together, hoping to get safely through the land where
Mohammedans ruled over low-caste negroes. Suddenly a party of Moors surrounded him, bidding him come
to Ali, the chief, who wished to see a white man and a Christian. Park now found himself the centre of an
admiring crowd. Men, women, and children crowded round him, pulling at his clothes and examining his
waistcoat buttons till he could hardly move. Arrived at Ali's tent, Mungo found an old man with a long white
beard. "The surrounding attendants, and especially the ladies, were most inquisitive; they asked a thousand
questions, inspected every part of my clothes, searched my pockets, and obliged me to unbutton my waistcoat
and display the whiteness of my skin--they even counted my toes and fingers, as if they doubted whether I
was in truth a human being." He was lodged in a hut made of corn stalks, and a wild hog was tied to a stake as
a suitable companion for the hated Christian. He was brutally ill-treated, closely watched, and insulted by "the
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