262 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. XLVI. 
cort ; but he was not the kind of man I should have 
liked. If phrenologists had taken his features as the 
general type of the Negro race, they would have felt 
themselves authorized in assigning to them a more 
intimate affinity with monkeys than with men ; and 
his cheerless but self-conceited disposition was in 
perfect harmony with his exterior. 
The waters of the lagoon had already considera- 
bly decreased, laying bare fine fresh pasture-grounds, 
on which numerous herds of cattle were grazing, 
while small pools of stagnant water, left behind by 
the retiring inundation, afforded some relief to the 
monotony of the plain. A great deal of cotton is 
cultivated on these fertile grounds, and an immense 
deal more might be cultivated. The people were busy 
in all directions in the labours of the field, while, on 
those grounds which were not cultivated, the luxuriant 
weed of the Asclepias was re-assuming its ordinary 
domain, Scarcely a single tree was to be seen ; and 
only as we proceeded onwards a few specimens gra- 
dually appeared. 
Thus we passed the village of Kiikiya, where we had 
taken up our first night's quarters on the expedition to 
Musgu. Here the deep sandy soil was at times enli- 
vened by isolated clusters of the dum-bush; and people 
were digging, here and there, for the rush-nut ("hab 
el aziz" or "nefu," Cyperus esculentus) which I have 
mentioned on former occasions. A tract of indifferent 
cultivation was relieved by a fine field of wheat, belong- 
ing to several of the great men or kokanawa of Kiikawa. 
