334 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XL VIII. 
the country after I had once entered it. It was 
therefore decided that we should proceed in the di- 
rection of the capital, and make our further proceed- 
ings dependent upon circumstances. The reason we 
did not start at once was because my companions 
wanted to pass the extensive forest which lay before 
us in the night-time, as there was no water for a 
whole day's march, and our people were unprovided 
with water-skins. 
In order to employ my leisure time, I took a walk 
to Biigarf, the village above mentioned, it being mar- 
ket-day ; and I was glad, considering the little civili- 
zation which is to be met with in these regions, to find 
a good deal of traffic going on in the market. There 
were about twenty head of cattle, between sixty and 
eighty sheep, and about a dozen asses to be sold ; 
there were, moreover, a good assortment of black and 
white tobes, a tolerable supply of butter and honey, 
besides millet, beans, and ground-nuts; the latter, espe- 
cially, were very plentiful, and bore ample testimony 
to the fact, that in these regions, also, this valuable 
article of commerce grows in great quantities, and 
forms a considerable portion of the diet of the natives ; 
but as for cotton, the supply was rather limited. 
The staple commodity of the market were tobes, 
half-tobes, and single strips of cotton, or farda, about 
three inches wide, and from three to four dra in length. 
Unfortunately, I was destitute of this kind of money, 
the people rejecting with contempt those miserable 
little shirts, or dora, which I had brought with me 
