180 TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LVII. 
supplied, there being about thirty horses, three 
hundred head of cattle for slaughtering, fifty 
takerkere, or oxen of burden, and a great quantity of 
leather articles (this being the most celebrated branch 
of manufacture in Sokoto), especially leather bags, 
cushions, and similar articles, the leather dressed and 
prepared here being very soft and beautiful. There 
were more than a hundred bridles for sale, the work- 
manship of which is very famous throughout all this 
part of Negroland ; but especially a large quantity of 
iron was exposed for sale, the iron of Sokoto being 
of excellent quality and much sought for, while that 
of Kano is of bad quality. A good many slaves 
were exhibited, and fetched a higher price than 
might be supposed, — a lad of very indifferent appear- 
ance being sold for 33,000 shells; I myself bought a 
pony for 30,000. It being just about the period 
when the salt-caravan visits these parts, dates also, 
which usually form a small addition to the principal 
merchandise of those traders of the desert, were to 
be had ; and I filled a leather bag, for some 2000 
shells, in order to give a little more variety to my 
food on the long road which lay before me. 
I took another interesting ride through 
April 23rd. 
the kofa-n-Diinday, not following the direct 
road to that village, which lies close to the junction 
of the gulbi-n-Rima with the gulbi-n-Raba, but not 
far from the decayed northern wall, and thus crossed 
a considerable channel, a branch of the river, full of 
water, being even at the present time about fifteen 
