Chap. LXII. HO'MBOBI. 319 
us whether or not we should visit that town, one of 
the most ancient settlements in Negroland, probably 
already mentioned as an independent place by El 
Bekri and forming the seat of a governor in the 
palmy days of the Songhay empire, the Hombori-koy, 
and where even now a considerable market is held ; but 
after mature consideration we had thought it better 
to leave it on one side, as on account of the con- 
siderable intercourse of people in that place, and the 
many Arabs who frequent it, the danger of my true 
character being there discovered was the greater. 
Notwithstanding our determination not to touch 
at Hombori, on setting out the following day, after 
an almost sleepless night, owing to the number 
of mosquitoes, we preserved an entirely northerly 
direction. There was a good deal of cultivation 
round the village, consisting of Indian and Negro 
millet, the crops being almost ripe. But I here met 
again that great annoyance to the husbandman, the 
black worm " halowes," my old acquaintance in 
Bagirmi, which I had not seen in the whole inter- 
vening country, and which causes an immense deal of 
damage to the crops. The ground was rocky in many 
* El Bekri, ed. de Slane, 1857, texte arabe, p. 179.; comp. 
Cooley, the Negroland of the Arabs, p. 39. n. 73. — There 
can be but little doubt that by this &j«Xo Hombori is 
meant ; for although Ei Bekri made a gross mistake in stating 
that this place was situated west of Ghana, while in reality it 
was east, yet, on the other hand, it is very remarkable that the 
distance of nine days between Ambara and Kukia, or Kugha, 
agrees exactly with that between Hombori and the latter place. 
