Chap. XXXYIII. 
so'koto AND wada'y. 
15 
quarter to which the most anxious looks of the Bornu 
people were directed. For, seven years previously, 
they had been very nearly conquered by them, and 
had employed every means to get information of what 
was going on there. But from thence also the news 
was favourable. For although the report of the 
death of the Sultan Mohammed Sherif, in course of 
time, turned out to be false, still it was true that 
the country was plunged into a bloody civil war 
with the Abu-Seniin, or Kodoyi, and that numbers of 
enterprising men had succumbed in the struggle. 
The business of the town went on as usual, with 
the exception of the aid el fotr, the ngumeri 
asham, the festival following the great annual fast, 
which was celebrated in a grand style, not by the 
nation, which seemed to take very little interest in 
it, but by the court. In other places, like Kan6, the 
rejoicings seem to be more popular on this occasion; 
the children of the butchers or " masufauchi" in that 
great emporium of commerce mounting some oxen, 
fattened for the occasion, between the horns, and 
managing them by a rope fastened to the neck, and 
another to the hind leg. As for the common people 
of B6rnu, they scarcely took any other part in this 
festivity than by putting on their best dresses ; and 
it is a general custom in larger establishments that 
servants and attendants on this day receive a new 
shirt. 
I also put on my best dress, and mounting my 
horse, which had recovered a little from the fatigue of 
