Chap. XL VIII. INTERCOURSE. 
347 
in the little village where I was obliged to make so 
long a stay, exhibited some more interesting fea- 
tures, notwithstanding the dulness of the market; for 
among the merchants there appeared occasionally a 
small troop of Hausa people — dangariinfa, slender 
active fellows, accustomed to fatigue, and content 
with little profit, who were carrying on their heads, 
all the way from Kano to Bagirmi, small parcels of 
indigo-dyed shirts, and other commodities, in order 
to barter them for the fine asses of Dar-Fiir, which are 
brought hither by the travellers from the east. 
Not less interesting was the arrival of a portion of 
a numerous caravan of Jellaba, from Nimro in Waday, 
who had come to Mas-ena ; it consisted of about a 
dozen people, with about twenty pack-oxen and asses. 
As for the principal part of the caravan, the chief 
commodity imported by them was copper, which they 
were bringing from the great copper-mine, or el hofra, 
situated to the south of Dar-Fiir, carrying it as far as 
Kano towards the west, where this fine eastern copper 
rivals the old copper which is brought by the Arab 
caravans from Tripoli. But these people who had 
arrived in Bakada were the poorer members of the 
troop ; and their wealth and exclusive article of com- 
merce was a very excellent quality of rock salt, which 
the Tebu-Guraan bring from the Burrum or Bahr el 
Ghazal to Wara, where it is bought in great quan- 
tities by the Jellaba, who sell it in small parcels, car- 
rying it as far as Log6n and Kusuri. I bought a 
little for a sheet of paper, and found it excellent, with 
the exception of its having decidedly a fishy taste. 
