Chap. LVI. EXPEDITIONARY CORPS. 
Ill 
sadly disappointed in his expectations. As for the 
ghaladima, he had about twenty mounted companions, 
the most warlike among whom was a younger brother 
of his, of the name of f Omar, or Ghomaro, who was 
descended from a Piillo mother, and, on account of 
his noble birth, had better claims to the office of 
ghaladima than his brother. Most of these troopers 
were very fantastically dressed, in the Hausa fashion, 
and in a similar manner to those 1 have described 
on a former occasion. Some of the horses were fine, 
strong animals, although in height they are sur- 
passed by the Bornu horses. 
We watered our cattle in a kiirremi or dry water- 
course, which contained a number of wells from one 
fathom to a fathom and a half in depth, and was 
beautifully skirted with deleb palms, while a granite 
mound on its eastern shore, rose to an altitude of 
from eighty to a hundred feet. I ascended it, but 
did not obtain a distant view. Near this water- 
course the cultivation was a little interrupted ; but 
further on the country became again well cultivated, 
broken here and there by some underwood, while the 
monkey-bread tree, the ddm palm, great numbers of 
a species of acacia called " arred," and the " merke " 
dotted the fields. The latter tree, which I have 
mentioned on a former occasion, bears a fruit which, 
when mixed with the common native grain, is said 
to preserve horses from worms. 
Thus we reached the town of Kurrefi, or Kulfi, 
and were not a little puzzled by the very considerable 
