144 DENHAM AND CLAPPERTON. 



offered young lions, to be kept as domestic favourites. TBa 

 Major found one of them enclosed by a circle of spectator*, 

 and was invited to step up and stroke it on the mane. He 

 was about to comply, though with sensations which he 

 admits himself unable to describe, when the animal sud- 

 denly brushed past him, broke through the circle, and 

 rushed to another station. The sheik was afterward kind 

 enough to send him a young lion as a pet, which the Major 

 politely returned, expressing regret at not being able to 

 find room for so fine a specimen of Afi*ican zoology. 



Bomou, taken altogether, forms an extensive plain, 

 stretching 200 miles along the western shore of the im- 

 mense lake already mentioned, and nearly the same dis- 

 tance inland. This sea periodically changes its bed in an 

 extraordinary manner. During the rains, when its tri- 

 butary rivers pour in thrice the usual quantity of water, it 

 inundates an extensive tract of country, from which it re- 

 tires in the dry season. This space, then overgrown with 

 dense underwood, and with grass double the height of a 

 man, contains a motley assemblage of wild beasts, — lions, 

 panthers, hyenas, elephants, and serpents of extraordinary 

 form and bulk. These monsters, while undisturbed in 

 this mighty den, remain tranquil, or war only with each 

 other ; but when the lake swells, and its waters rush iH, 

 they of necessity seek refuge among the abodes of men, to 

 whom they prove the most dreadful scourge. Not only the 

 cattle, but the slaves tending the grain, often fall victims ; 

 they even rush in large bodies into the towns. The rest 

 of the country, placed beyond the reach of this annual in- 

 undation, is in many places very fertile ; and cultivation is 

 so limited that land may always be had in any quantity by 

 him who has slaves to employ upon it. This service is 

 performed by female captives from Musgow, who, aiding 

 their native ugliness by the insertion of a large piece of 

 silver into the upper-lip, which throws it entirely out of 

 shape, are coveted in no other view than for the quantity 

 of hard work which they can execute. The processes of 

 agriculture are extremely simple. Their only fine manufac- 

 ture is that of tohcs, or vestments of cotton skilftilly woven 

 and beautifiiUy died, but still not equal to those of Soudan. 

 In every other handicraft they are very inexpert, — even in 

 vrorks of iron, which are of the greatest use to a martial people. 



