136 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XLII. 
previously to Log6n in order to pay a visit to some 
relations of his, and had now joined this expedition. 
But one must be very careful with these Shiiwa ; 
for, to use a common expression, if you give them an 
inch, they are wont to take an ell. But for their 
Jewish character, I should have liked to enter into 
more intimate relations with them than I actually did. 
Their emigration into these regions, at least several 
centuries ago, is certainly not without interest ; and, 
as I have already had occasion to observe in another 
place, they preserve the characteristic type of their 
race very distinctly — a middle-sized, slender figure 
(which, however, is apt to become fuller as they ad- 
vance in years), small pleasing features, and a dark 
olive complexion. Their dialect is very peculiar ; and 
while it lays claim to a far greater purity than be- 
longs to the dialects of the coast, by the profusion 
of vowels which it has preserved, its character is 
deteriorated, and becomes nearly ridiculous, by the 
continued repetition and insertion of certain words. 
A Shiiwa is not able to say three words without in- 
serting his favourite term " kuch, kuch," which 
corresponds to the English word " thorough," but 
which is not Arabic at all. When they omit the word 
" kuch," they make use of another term, " ber- 
ketek," " your worship," which at once bears tes- 
timony to the servile and degraded position which 
they occupy in Negroland, although in Bornu they 
are still treated with some indulgence and lenity, 
especially since the time when Mohammed Tirab, 
