to leave my tent and to sit down for a while on a rock, which commanded the whole interior of the town. There I had a charming prospect over the scene by clear moonlight, while people were busily employed the whole night, collecting the small supply of water from the channel, for their next day's wants. Tuesday, In order to pass the narrow gate, if gate March 29th. it may be called, I was obliged to have the two posts which encompassed it on each side removed. The whole country round about is rocky, with only a slight covering of fertile soil, so that nothing but Indian millet is cultivated, which thrives very well in rocky ground. But the country was adorned with a tolerable variety of trees, such as monkey-bread trees, most of which had young leaves, the dorówa, the kadeña, and the merké. While crossing a small rocky ridge, we were joined by a troop of people bearing large loads of cotton upon their heads, which they were carrying to the considerable market of Badaráwa. This cotton was distinguished by its snow-white colour, and seemed to be of very good quality. Beyond the rocky ridge, the country became more open, rich in trees and cultivated fields; and having passed a village, we turned round the south-western corner of the walled town of Sabón Bírni, making our way with great difficulty, and not without some damage to the fences as well as to our luggage, through the narrow lanes of an open suburb. The western side of the town was bordered by a korámma containing CHAP. LVI. MARKET OF BADARA'WA. 125 a considerable sheet of stagnant water of very bad quality, and fringed all round by a border of kitchengardens, where onions were cultivated. The governor of Sabón Bírni, like that of Zýrmi, is directly dependent on the emír of Sókoto. The name or title of his dominion is Bázay. From hence, along a path filled with market people, we reached the walled town of Badaráwa, which, like most of the towns of Zánfara, is sur rounded on all sides with a dense border of timber, affording to the archers, who form the strength of the natives, great advantage in a defence, and making any attack, in the present condition of the strategetical art in this country, very difficult. In the midst of this dense body of trees there was a very considerable market, attended by nearly 10,000 people, and well supplied with cotton *, which seemed to be the staple commodity, while Indian millet (sorghum) also was in abundance. A great number of cattle were slaughtered in the market, and the meat retailed in small quantities. There was also a good supply of fresh butter (which is rarely seen in Negroland), formed in large lumps, cleanly prepared, and swimming in water; they were sold for 500 kurdí each. Neither was there any scarcity of onions, a vegetable which is extensively cultivated in the province of Zánfara, the smaller ones being sold for one uri, the larger ones for two kurdí each. These onions are *It was extensively cultivated in this province at the beginning of the sixteenth century. (Leo Africanus, lib. vii. c. 13.) mostly cultivated round a large tebki, about half a mile to the west of the town, which even at the present season was still of considerable size. Instead of entering the narrow streets of the town, I pitched my tent in the open fields, at a considerable distance from the wall; for I was the more in want of fresh air, as I was suffering greatly from headache. The consequence was that I could not even indulge in the simple luxuries of the market, but had recourse to my common medicine of tamarind water. There was some little danger here, not so much from a foreign foe as from our proximity to a considerable hamlet of Tawárek of the tribe of the Itísan, who have settlements in all these towns of Zánfara. While endeavouring to recruit myself by rest and simple diet, I received a visit from an intelligent and well-behaved young fáki, Mållem Dádi, who belonged to the suite of the ghaladíma, and whose company was always agreeable to me. He informed me that the Zánfaráwa and the Góberáwa had regarded each other with violent hatred from ancient times,— Babári, the founder of Kaláwa, or Alkaláwa, the former capital of Góber, having based the strength and wellbeing of his own country on the destruction of the old capital of Zánfara, ninety-seven years previously. Hence the people of Zánfara embarked heart and soul in the religious and political rising of the sheikh 'Othmán against his liege lord the ruler of Góber. I learned also that the same amount of tribute, which I have before mentioned as carried on this occasion CHAP. LVI. TRIBUTE. -FIRST RU'DU. 127 by the messengers of Záriya to the emír el Múmenín, was paid almost every second month, while from Kátsena it was very difficult to obtain a regular tribute, the governor of that town generally not paying more than 400,000 kurdí and forty articles, such as bernúses, kaftans, &c., annually. It was only an exceptional case, arising from the exertions of the ghaladíma as I was told, that he had sent, this year, 800,000 shells, besides a horse of Tárki breed, of the nominal value of 700,000 kurdí. Allowing my camels to pursue the direct Wednesday, road, I myself took a rather roundabout March 30th. way, in order to get a sight of the tebki from which the town is supplied; and I was really astonished at the considerable expanse of clear water which it exhibited at this time of the year (shortly before the setting in of the rainy season), when water in the whole of Negroland becomes very scanty. The ground consisted of fine vegetable soil, while the cultivation along the path was scarcely interrupted; and in passing a hamlet we saw the inhabitants making the first preparations for the labours of the field. Cotton was also cultivated to a considerable extent. About a mile and a half further on, at the village of Sungúruré, which is surrounded with a strong keffi, I observed the first rúdu, a sort of light hut consisting of nothing but a thatched roof raised upon four poles from eight to ten feet in height, and affording a safe retreat to the inhabitants, during their night's rest, against the swarms of mosquitoes which infest the whole region along the swampy creeks of the Niger, the people entering these elevated bedrooms from below, and shutting the entrance behind them, as represented in the accompanying woodcut. Leaving, then, the walled town of Katúru close on our left, we entered a dense forest richly interwoven with creeping plants, and intersected by a large korámma with a very uneven bottom, affording sufficient proof of the vehemence of the torrent which at times rushes along it. At present it contained nothing but pools of stagnant water in several places, where we observed a large herd of camels, belonging to a party of Itísan, just being watered, while tobacco was cultivated on the border of the korámma. A little further on, the torrent had swept away and undermined the banks in such a manner that they presented the appearance of artificial walls. We met several natives on the road, who, although Fúlbe or Féllani (that is to say, belonging to the conquering tribe) and themselves apparently Mohammedans, wore nothing but a leather apron round their loins. Thus we reached, a little past noon, the town Sansánne Aísa, which was originally a mere fortified encampment or "sansánne." But its advanced and in some respects isolated position, as an outlying post |