140 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. . Chap. XLII. 
tars ; for this is the way in which powder is prepared 
in Negroland, and during my stay in Bagirmi every 
time I had my coffee pounded (as I did not possess a 
coffee-mill), I excited the suspicion that I was pre- 
paring powder. Of course the presence of the army 
was the reason why so little activity was to be seen 
at present, and the little market, or durriya, which is 
held in the afternoon, was very badly attended ; but 
the size and populousness of the town made such 
an impression upon me, that I thought myself jus- 
tified in rating the number of inhabitants at about 
twenty-five thousand. 
Altogether I was so much pleased with the cha- 
racter of the place, that on expressing my satis- 
faction to one of the inhabitants who came to sa- 
lute my companion, with the words, " A'tema billa 
ngilla," " This is a fine town," he replied, with 
conscious pride, "A'te billa deka gem, ate billa 
maiwa," " This is not a country town ; this is a 
royal residence." We reached the gate on the 
north-west side of the town, just at the moment 
when 'Abd e' Rahman, the eldest brother of the 
sheikh 'Omar, arrived with a party of horsemen. 
What his business was I do not know ; but before the 
expedition left the town, there had been a great many 
unfavourable rumours concerning his ambitious de- 
signs, and the malcontents expected that he would 
avail himself of this opportunity for striking a blow at 
the vizier, in order to prevent the expedition from pro- 
ceeding against Mandara, as he himself was supposed 
