330 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA Chap. XL VIII. 
bly, and my horseman's father-in-law, a very jovial and 
decent looking man, made me a present of a fat sheep. 
The only difficulty was the water, the well, notwith- 
standing its depth of fifteen fathoms, containing only 
a very small supply. Scarcity of water seems, indeed, 
to be one of the great disadvantages of Bagirmi. 
We remained here the whole of the forenoon of the 
following day, and did not start until half-past two 
in the afternoon. The country which we traversed 
was well inhabited, and a good deal of cotton was to be 
seen ; and it was here that I first beheld it cultivated 
in ridges and furrows, a manner of culture which, I 
think, is constantly adhered to in America as well as in 
India, but in Negroland very rarely ; the cotton plants 
growing on the ridges, but being at present quite 
bare of leaves. All the cotton plantations which I had 
seen previously in Negroland were left to themselves, 
and were rather in a wild state ; but here they seemed 
to be well kept and taken care of. At a village called 
Mutkomi my attention was drawn to the great 
numbers of asses ; here the ground was full of the 
holes of the fenek or Megalotis, called by the native 
Shiiwa population " bii hassen." 
Further on, a firm and dry clay soil succeeded. 
Having then passed a large village of the name of 
Bugari, we took up our quarters a little before sunset in 
a village called Matuwari, which belongs to a wealthy 
and learned man called Legari Bu-Musa, and were very 
hospitably received. These people were also Kaniiri, 
and I was delighted to observe some signs of industry 
