Chap. LVII. GENERAL CHARACTER OF WURNO. 159 
meat, was even dearer here than in Katsena, — 100 
shells scarcely sufficing for the daily maintenance of 
one horse, and 800 shells buying no more corn than 
500 would have done in Katsena, while an ox for 
slaughtering cost 7000 shells, and I bought two 
milking-goats, in order to enjoy the luxury of a little 
milk for my tea, for 2700 shells. The only article 
which was at all cheap was onions. The market is 
held on a natural platform spreading out in front of 
the north-western gate, and surrounded and fortified 
by a ditch, as, in the present weak state of the Fulbe, 
the market people are liable to be suddenly attacked 
by the enemy. This place, as well as the whole of 
the town, I visited the following day, in company 
with my friend Alhattu, who, in acknowledgment of 
the present I had given him in Gawasii, and in ex- 
pectation of more, took me under his special pro- 
tection ; but in crossing the town, in a westerly 
direction from our quarters, I was surprised at its 
neglected and dirty appearance, — a small ravine which 
intersects the town forming a most disgusting spec- 
tacle, even worse than the most filthy places of any 
of the deserted capitals of Italy. Emerging then by 
the western gate (the kofa-n-sabuwa), through which 
leads the road to Sokoto, and which was just being 
repaired by the people of the ghaladima, in order to 
make it capable of withstanding the effects of the 
rainy season, we turned northwards round the town. 
In front of each gate, on the slope of the rocky 
eminence on which the town is built, there is a group 
