Chap. LVII. ENTRANCE INTO SO'KOTO. 
173 
stream, in order to supply the poor people. The 
wealthier classes are believed to be supplied from 
other quarters, although such a presumption is very 
often false, the water from this stream being merely 
sold to them under a more pompous title. 
Ascending then the slope of the eminence on which 
the town is built, and which rises to about one 
hundred feet, and leaving a spacious " marina" or 
dyeing-place on the slope of the hill on our left, we 
entered the walls of Sokoto by the k6fa-n-rimi; and 
although the interior did not at present exhibit that 
crowded appearance which made such a pleasing 
impression upon Clapperton, the part nearest the 
wall being rather thinly inhabited, and the people 
being evidently reduced to a state of great poverty 
and misery, it made a cheerful impression on me, 
on account of the number of dum palms and k6rna 
trees by which it is adorned. 
Orders having been sent beforehand, I was quar- 
tered without delay in the house of the ghaladima — 
a clay dwelling in tolerable repair, but full of 
white ants, so that I was glad to find there a " gado" 
or couch of reeds, where I was able to rest myself and 
put away my small effects, without being continually 
exposed to the insidious attacks of these voracious 
insects. Having thus made myself comfortable, my 
first visit the following morning was to Modibo 'All, 
who had already testified his friendship for me by 
sending me a fat sheep to Wurno. Differing entirely 
from the present generation of beggars, whose ignoble 
