102 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LV. 
dan TafFa (meaning, the son of Miistapha), on whose 
stores of knowledge I drew largely. My intercourse 
with e Abd e' Rahman was occasionally interrupted by 
an amicable tilt at our respective creeds. On one 
occasion, when my learned friend was endeavouring 
to convince me of the propriety of polygamy, he 
adduced as an illustration, that in matters of the 
table we did not confine ourselves to a single dish, but 
took a little fowl, a little fish, and a little roast beef; 
and how absurd, he argued, was it, to restrict our- 
selves, in the intercourse with the other sex, to only 
one wife. It was during my second stay in Katsena 
that I collected most of the information which I 
have communicated on a former occasion with regard 
to the history of Hausa. 
Besides this kind of occupation, my dealings with 
the governor, and an occasional ride which I took 
through and outside the town, I had a great deal 
to do in order to satisfy the claims of the inhabitants 
upon my very small stock of medicinal knowledge, 
especially at the commencement of my residence, 
when I was severely pestered with applications, having 
generally from 100 to 200 patients in my courtyard 
every morning. The people even brought me some- 
times animals to cure ; and I was not a little amused 
when they once brought me a horse totally blind, 
which they thought I was able to restore to its former 
power of vision. 
Living in Katsena is not so cheap as in most other 
places of Negroland — at least we thought so at the 
