122 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LVI. 
When we again reached the direct road, the neigh- 
bourhood of our friends was distinctly indicated by a 
very strong and not quite aromatic smell, which 
proceeded from the luggage of those of the caravan 
of native traders (or fataki) who had attached them- 
selves to our troop in Zekka, leaving their more 
cautious brethren behind. The merchandise of these 
small traders consisted, for the most part, of those 
vegetable cakes, called dodowa, which I have men- 
tioned repeatedly, and which constitute an important 
article of trade, as the dorowa or Parkia, from the 
fruit of which those cakes are made, thrives in great 
abundance in the province of Zegzeg, while it is com- 
paratively rare in the provinces of Kebbi and Gober. 
Three thousand of these cakes constitute an ass-load, 
and each of them in general is sold in Sokoto for five 
kurdi, having been bought on the spot for one uri ; 
so that the profit, being not less than 500 per cent., 
makes this commerce attractive for poor people, not- 
withstanding the dangerous state to which this road 
is at present reduced. The return freight which these 
petty merchants bring back from Sokoto, generally 
consists of the salt of F6gha. 
Our further road conducted us through a more 
rugged district, intersected by numerous small water- 
courses with very rocky beds, and mostly covered with 
dense forest only now and then broken by a small 
tract of cultivated ground producing even a little 
cotton. Thus we reached the town of Duchi, the 
name of which, meaning " the rocks," served well to 
