Chap. LVI. 
MARKET OF BADARA'WA. 
125 
a considerable sheet of stagnant water of very bad 
quality, and fringed all round by a border of kitchen - 
gardens, where onions were cultivated. The governor 
of Sabon Bfrni, like that of Zyrmi, is directly de- 
pendent on the emir of S6koto. The name or title of 
his dominion is Bazay. 
From hence, along a path filled with market 
people, we reached the walled town of Badarawa, 
which, like most of the towns of Zanfara, is sur- 
rounded on all sides with a dense border of timber, 
affording to the archers, who form the strength of 
the natives, great advantage in a defence, and making 
any attack, in the present condition of the strategetical 
art in this country, very difficult. In the midst of 
this dense body of trees there was a very considerable 
market, attended by nearly 10,000 people, and well 
supplied with cotton *, which seemed to be the 
staple commodity, while Indian millet (sorghum) also 
was in abundance. A great number of cattle were 
slaughtered in the market, and the meat retailed in 
small quantities. There was also a good supply of 
fresh butter (which is rarely seen in Negroland), 
formed in large lumps, cleanly prepared, and swim- 
ming in water ; they were sold for 500 kurdi each. 
Neither was there any scarcity of onions, a vegetable 
which is extensively cultivated in the province of 
Zanfara, the smaller ones being sold for one uri, the 
larger ones for two kurdi each; These onions are 
* It was extensively cultivated in this province at the beginning 
of the sixteenth century. (Leo Africanus, lib. vii. c. 13.) 
