86 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



lose none of the messengers at the hands of the Yergum and 

 Gurkaua who were then on the war-path. During my stay 

 at Wase, a man was sent round to me from the king. He 

 and a friend were going from that place to Yelua when the 

 Gurkaua came out and killed his companion, while he escaped 

 back. He brought with him the poisoned arrow which he 

 had drawn from his friend's body. 



For some time now, I had been feeling well enough to 

 take quiet rides in and round the town. A few years ago 

 it contained over 10,000 people, but now there are not more 

 than between two and three thousand, owing to the famine 

 which has been prevailing there. 



The ruling classes are composed of Hausa and Fulani, 

 the lower classes from pagan Jukum and the surrounding 

 tribes. My collection of calabashes was here greatly increased 

 and the poker-work designs on many of them showed that 

 some of these people, especially the Hausas, have an unusual 

 sense of the value of line. 



Like most walled towns, the ground inside Wase is partly 

 taken up with compounds, each of which consists of five 

 or six huts, grouped round a small space, and enclosed with 

 a mud wall. These are generally occupied by one family, 

 and its branches. The size of the compound varies with 

 the importance of its owner. The rest of the space inside 

 the walls is filled with millet and guinea corn. In the midst 

 of these fields a high erection is generally to be seen on 

 which sits a boy who is continually calling to frighten off 

 the birds, and the people for the most part are engaged 

 scaring them away by shouting and pulling strings on which 

 are suspended old gourds, calabashes, &c. The town wall 



