424 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXVI. 
stitution, was only observed as long as the king ex- 
ercised paramount authority, while we see in other 
cases the army, or even a powerful governor, choosing 
a successor, as that of Dendi, who deposed Moham- 
med Bankori, and installed in his place A'skia Ismail. 
As I stated before, we do not even find in Songhay 
a regular vizier ; but we find a sort of treasurer in 
the person of the " khatib," that is to say the imam 
who preaches before the congregation every Friday. 
Thus we find the great Haj Mohammed A'skia taking 
the whole of the money which he thought necessary 
for his royal pilgrimage, viz. 300,000 mithkals, out of 
the royal treasury, which was in the hands of the 
khatib 'Omar* ; but we even find, in another passage, 
the same khatib authorised to liberate a princely pri- 
soner ; and, from a third passage f, it is quite evident 
that the khatib in Gagho exercised the same authority 
as the kadhi in Timbuktu, although we find a kadhi 
besides him in the capital. 
There appears to have been an established state 
prison in Songhay, namely, in a place called Kantu, 
the exact situation of which, however, I have not 
Ban A'skia, that he expressly designated two (J. O. S. p. 545). 
Moreover, we find that neither of these two was taken into 
account in appointing a successor (lb. p. 546). But another pas- 
sage (lb. p. 552) is not less clear, stating plainly that, the fereng- 
mangha having fallen in the battle, the A'skia named another prince 
as his successor, implying clearly the identity of the title " fereng- 
mangha" with that of heir-apparent. 
* Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, p. 533. 
•\ Ibid. p. 555. 
