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wet, but uninjured, for luckily there had been enough 

 water to break his sixty-feet fall. When he joined 

 Kusseri the two kissed each other all over, in 

 joy at their reunion after so startling a separation. 

 Kusseri felt the marches a good deal, for he had begun 

 to teethe, and was occasionally taken with fits which 

 terrified us for him. He was always good and gentle 

 with us, and would let us handle him however much 

 he might be suffering. 



A kob had been given to us at Fika, one of the 

 kind pronounced dangerous by the boys at Fort Lamy, 

 and they now imputed Kusseri's troubles to its agency. 

 It was a dear little beast, tame and gentle, and very 

 confiding ; but it died mysteriously, and we suspected 

 the boys of having contributed to this result. 



When we entered Kano province an emissary from 

 the Emir met us, to be our guide. He paid us profuse 

 compliments, and indulged his curiosity in us to the full, 

 poking and peering into our rooms or tents, so that 

 to preserve our privacy we had to fill up every crevice 

 with boots or cushions ; but, as the zakis loved to 

 romp in and pull them out, his hours of assiduous watch- 

 ing were rewarded by occasional glimpses. This man 

 was an utter liar, and after he had caused us a great 

 deal of inconvenience by his falsehoods, Mr Talbot told 

 him we could not allow him to come with us any 

 longer. The wretched fellow was in a great state of 

 mind ; he knew the Emir would not forgive him his 

 disgrace, and his pose of self-sufficient swagger dropped 

 from him in a moment. He left our presence, stripped 

 off all his fine garments, and returned in a rag ; cast 

 himself upon the ground before us, bowed his head in 

 the dust, and repeated, '* Zaki, zaki," while Mastaba 



