Chap. LIX. NEW COMPANIONS. — TILLI. 
221 
that we should start in the afternoon by way of 
Tilli, which certainly lay greatly out of our road, 
in order to join this party, while my young friend 
A'bii Bakr, the eldest son of the governor, rode im- 
mediately to the neighbouring town to induce those 
people to wait for us. It was thus deemed sufficient 
to give me for companions only two horsemen ; but 
fortunately they were of such a character that I pre- 
ferred them to at least a dozen other people, both 
of them being experienced old warriors and most 
respectable men, one of them having been till lately 
the governor of the town of Debe, which was now 
deserted, and the site of which we had to pass on 
our road. I was heartily glad to get rid of my 
two former effeminate companions, Lowel, the servant 
of the governor of Gando, and Beshir, an atten- 
dant of the ghaladima in Sokoto, as they had been 
of scarcely any use to me on my way hither, except, 
perhaps, in procuring me a better reception from the 
governors of the towns and villages ; and I gladly 
complied with the demands of my new companions, 
by giving to each of them a new black " litham " or 
" rawani baki " for themselves, a flask of rose oil for 
their wives, and one thousand shells for the expenses 
of their households during their absence. 
Returning then in a north-easterly direction along 
the western border of the broad faddama, we reached 
after a march of about four miles, when the sun had 
already gone down, the town of Tilli, which, corning 
from Diggi, we had had just opposite us on the other 
