We halted near this channel at a large village, which had as governor a negro, a pilgrim, and a man of fine character, named Farba Magha. He was one of the Negroes who made the pilgrimage in the Company of Sultan Mansá Musá. Farba Magha told me that when Mansá Musá came to this channel, he had with him a qádi, a white man. This qádi attempted to make away with four thousand mithqáls, and the sultan, on learning of it, was enraged at him and exiled him to the country of the heathen cannibals. He lived among them for four years, at the end of which the sultan sent him back to his own country. The reason why the heathens did not eat him was that he was white, for they say that the white is indigestible because he is not " ripe," whereas the black man is " ripe " in their opinion.
Sultan Mansá Sulaymán was visited by a party of these negro cannibals, including one of their amírs. They have a custom of wearing large pendants in their ears, each pendant having an opening of half a span. They wrap themselves in silk mantles, and in their country, there is a gold mine. The sultan received them with honor and gave them as a gift of hospitality a servant, a Negress. They killed and ate her, and having smeared their faces and hands with her blood, came to the sultan to thank him. I was informed that this is their regular custom whenever they visit his court. Someone told me about them that they say that the choicest parts of women's flesh are the palm of the hand and the breast.