natures; but concerning which they are far from indulging vain and delusive conjectures.
The Mandingoes seldom attain extreme old age. At forty, most of them become gray haired, and covered with wrinkles; and but few of them survive the age of fifty-five or sixty. They calculate the years of their lives, as I have already observed, by the number of rainy seasons (there being but one such in the year); and distinguish each year by a particular name, founded on some remarkable occurrence which happened in that year. Thus they say the year of the Farbanna war; the year of the Kaarta war; the year on which Gadou was plundered, &c. &c.; and I have no doubt that the year 1796, will in many places be distinguished by the name of Tobaubo tambi sang, "the year the white man passed;" as such an occurrence would naturally form an epoch in their traditional history.
But notwithstanding that longevity is uncommon among them, it appeared to me, that their diseases are but few in number. Their simple diet, and active way of life, preserve them from many of those disorders
