136 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



were very fine, many with blades almost as broad as Sudanese 

 ones. The hafts were light, long and straight and were made 

 from the roots of trees. In addition, both cavahers and 

 spearmen carried one or two barbed throwing spears. 



The Kachella proposed, if I had no objection, to re- 

 induct the ex-king of Ndivva who had been driven out by a 

 usurper, as mentioned above. He asked me to accompany 

 him to the town next morning for the purpose. This I did 

 and' presided over the ceremony. The Kanuri sat in a half- 

 circle facing the ex-king and his followers. Both sides made 

 long speeches — the Marragi in particular seemed to punc- 

 tuate their remarks by continually drawing lines in the 

 dust with their fingers. The chiefs first smoothed a piece 

 of ground before them, and then at each point that was made 

 by their own party or their opponents, drew a line with the 

 index finger in the dust. Towards the end of the negotiations 

 the ground looked like a tally-board. I believe that each 

 drew one long line and then marked his own points above, 

 and those of his adversaries below this, but I cannot remember 

 whether dots were interspersed to separate the speeches. 

 So far as I could gather the custom has not reached that 

 stage of development in North Nigeria, which it has done 

 among the Bavili of the Congo. As far as I could follow the 

 negotiations, the chief difficulty seemed to be as to how 

 many goats and sheep were to be paid to the Kanuri as the 

 price of their aid. 



When things were settled I went on to the first hill of all, 

 to replace the subtense flags. Groups of Marragi were col- 

 lecting, and affairs looked far from promising. After leaving 

 two soldiers in charge of the flags with orders to rejoin me at 



