142 DENHAM AND CLAPPERTON. 



rank of a courtier or of a fine gentleman. This form, 

 valued probably as a type of abundance and luxury, is es- 

 teemed so essential, that, where nature has not bestowed, 

 and the most excessive feeding and cramming cannot 

 produce it, wadding is employed, and a false belly pro- 

 duced, which, in riding, appears to hang over the pummel 

 of the saddle. Turbans also are wrapped round the head, 

 in fold after fold, till it appears swelled on one side to tho 

 most unnatural dimensions, and only one-half of the face 

 remains visible. The factitious bulk of the lords of Bornou 

 is still farther augmented by drawing round them, even in 

 this burning cHmate, ten or twelve successive robes of 

 cotton or silk, while the whole is covered over with num- 

 berless charms enclosed in green leather cases. Yet under 

 all these encumbrances they do sometimes mount and take 

 the field ; but the idea of such unwieldy hogsheads being 

 of any avail in the day of battle appeared altogether ridi- 

 culous, — and it proved accordingly, that, on such high oc- 

 casions, they merely exhibited themselves as ornaments, 

 without making even a show of encountering the enemy. 



With about 300 of this puissant chivalry before and 

 around him, the sultan was himself seated near the garden- 

 door in a sort of cane basket covered with silk, and his 

 face entirely shaded beneath a turban of more than the usua] 



