396 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. L. 
Occasionally there occurred some petty private af- 
fairs of my friends which caused some little interrup- 
tion in the uniform course of my life. Now it was my 
old friend Bu-Bakr, from Bdkadd, who complained of 
his wife, who resided here in Mas-end, and who did 
not keep his house as well and economically as he de- 
sired, and, when he occasionally came into the town, 
did not treat him so kindly as he thought she ought 
to do, so that he came to the serious conclusion of di- 
vorcing her. Another time my restless friend was in 
pursuit of a runaway slave, who had tried to escape 
beyond the Bachikam. 
Then it was my friend Haj A'hmed, who complained 
to me of his disappointment, and how he had been 
overreached by his enemies and rivals. He was 
certainly in an awkward position in this country; 
and I could never get quite at the bottom of his 
story. For, as I have mentioned above, he had been 
sent from Medina in order to obtain from the king 
of Bagfrmi a present of eunuchs; but now, after he 
had been residing here about a year and a half, having 
been continually delayed by the ruler of the country, 
another messenger had arrived, who, it seemed, was to 
reap the fruits of my friend's labours. Haj A'hmed 
had accompanied the sultan on his expedition the 
previous year ; but he had almost lost his life, having 
received a severe wound in the head, from one of 
those iron hand-bills which form the chief weapon of 
the pagan tribes towards the south. He therefore 
thought it better this time to remain behind ; but he 
