126 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LVI. 
mostly cultivated round a large tebki, about half a 
mile to the west of the town, which even at the 
present season was still of considerable size. Instead 
of entering the narrow streets of the town, I pitched 
my tent in the open fields, at a considerable distance 
from the wall ; for I was the more in want of fresh 
air, as I was suffering greatly from headache. The 
consequence was that I could not even indulge in the 
simple luxuries of the market, but had recourse to 
my common medicine of tamarind water. 
There was some little danger here, not so much 
from a foreign foe as from our proximity to a con- 
siderable hamlet of Tawarek of the tribe of the Itisan, 
who have settlements in all these towns of Zanfara. 
While endeavouring to recruit myself by rest and 
simple diet, I received a visit from an intelligent and 
well-behaved young faki, Mallem Dadi, who belonged 
to the suite of the ghaladima, and whose company 
was always agreeable to me. He informed me that 
the Zanfarawa and the Goberawa had regarded each 
other with violent hatred from ancient times, — Ba- 
bari, the founder of Kalawa, or Alkalawa, the former 
capital of Gober, having based the strength and well- 
being of his own country on the destruction of the 
old capital of Zanfara, ninety-seven years previously. 
Hence the people of Zanfara embarked heart and 
soul in the religious and political rising of the sheikh 
'Othman against his liege lord the ruler of G6ber. I 
learned also that the same amount of tribute, which I 
have before mentioned as carried on this occasion 
