182 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XLIII. 
served his princely dignity. At length the curtains of 
the spacious tent were drawn back, and in came the 
native prince. He was of a short stout figure, and 
rather mild, but not very prepossessing features, and 
apparently between fifty and sixty years of age. He 
wore a black tobe, but no trowsers, and was bare- 
headed. Kneeling on the ground, and clapping his 
hands, while he repeated the complimentary words, 
" Alia ngubberu dega " (God give you long life) ! ac- 
cording to the custom of the " kati g6tsin," he took up 
sand and sprinkled it upon his head ; but as soon as 
he had gone through this form of abject submission, he 
assumed his character as a native chief. Thus, at once 
he complained of his western neighbours, the Fiilbe 
or Fellata, or, as the Miisgu people call them, Ch6g- 
chogo ; for they, he said, had anticipated the vizier 
of Bornu, carrying off cattle and other things from 
his territory. The Bornu chief assured him that for 
the future he should not be exposed to such injus- 
tice, but that he was entirely under the protection 
of Bornu. He then made a sign, and some parcels 
were opened, and A'dishen was officially installed as 
a vassal and officer of Bornu. First, he was dressed 
in an elephant-shirt — the large black shirt from 
Niife, — over which a rich silk tobe was thrown, and 
over all an Egyptian shawl, while the self-conceited 
courtiers, in their proud consciousness of a higher 
state of civilization, treated him with contempt and 
scorn. My cheerful old friend Kashella Belal, who 
had decked him out in this finery, paid him the 
