72 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



I was now but dust in his eyes and the eyes of his people. 

 I was no longer a big man, for was it not unheard of for a 

 white man to travel through their country with only one 

 servant and eat the food of the black man ? 



After a good deal of " palaver," he relaxed so far as to 

 say that he would let me have the oxen if I would get the 

 Resident to let him off the fine, but not unless. As a last 

 resource I produced a sword-blade and a piece of Japanese 

 silk. At the sight of the former, his eyes ghstened and he 

 wavered, but the next moment his coarse face resumed its 

 expression of stohd indifference. " I will not let my people 

 give you oxen. I go," he said, and left me abruptly. 



The next morning I departed for Kukawa, but found to 

 my disappointment that my old friend the Shehu had left, 

 having been summoned to Maifoni by the Resident. His 

 brother Shef Sunnda, a stranger to me, was acting for him. 

 The latter presented me with the rotten egg of an ostrich, 

 which did not help me much to solve my difiiculties, 

 and I returned it immediately to the giver with a demand 

 to be supplied with some food. Whereupon he came 

 himself, bringing a fowl, some eggs, and corn. But at that 

 moment a horseman rode up and handed him a letter. It 

 must have been a most dramatic coincidence, for no sooner 

 had he read it than he straightway ordered his slaves with 

 the food to the right about and took his departure. The good- 

 will of authority thus poisoned against me promised ill for my 

 treatment at the hands of the people, and it was not long 

 before my fears were fulfilled. In the market I could hire 

 no ^labour, the women refusing to grind the corn that I had 

 bought. Everywhere I found that the report that I was 



