THE SHEHU OF KUKAWA 285 



its walls also. There are six of these already tenanted by 

 former Sultans of Bornu, who rest beneath the floors, and 

 are feasted once a year with a sacrifice of cattle that go to 

 them through the mouths of the poor at the palace gates. 



On the right a few trees form a wing and cast a deep 

 shadow which affords a grateful shelter for the waiting 

 horses and slaves of the headmen of the district who 

 come to seek audience of the Shehu. This is a daily func- 

 tion, and it is an amusing sight to see these fat, lazy, 

 pride-swollen chiefs being lifted in and out of their arm- 

 chair-like saddles by their slave boys, who are forced to 

 run as best they may behind. 



With them, too, come their friends on foot, of lesser rank, 

 but who eat, nevertheless, at the big men's tables, forming an 

 audience for their masters, as the latter do for the Shehu. 

 While the big men are admitted within the palace, their 

 friends, who are not so favoured, wait outside and form 

 their own little courts among their patrons' slaves. Thus 

 the vanity of all grades is mutually satisfied, and the 

 lines in " Hudibras " are again illustrated : 



" Big fleas have little fleas 

 On their backs to bite 'em. 

 Little fleas have smaller fleas, 

 And so on — ad infinitum^" 



At right angles on[|^our left was the mosque, of similar 

 shape, but squarer than the palace, and rendered conspicuous 

 from all sides by the addition of a dome, surmounted by a 

 cupola, overlaid with sheets of metal from tin boxes, which 

 flashed forth bravely, " a counter glory to the sun." 



Here every morning at six, at which hour he is awakened 



