462 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LII. 
A'su was formerly a walled town ; but the walls at 
present exhibit the same signs of decay which charac- 
terize the whole country. However, the inhabitants, 
to whom the ferry is a constant source of profit, 
seemed to be tolerably at their ease. It is this 
village (which formerly appears to have been of much 
greater importance) after which the river is some- 
times called the river of A'su ; but it ought never to 
be called the river A'su. Here also there is an officer 
or inspector of the ferry, with the title of kashella *, 
the same as in the village of Mele. 
saturcia r. ^ e na ^ ^ vs ^ *° f°U° w the bank of the 
August Mth. stream for a little more than a mile lower 
down, in order to reach the flat sandy beach which I 
have mentioned above. At length, after a good deal 
of delay, the boats were brought, and the passage 
began. Our horses went first, three or four swim- 
ming alongside each boat ; but it was a difficult affair 
for the men who were sitting in the boats to manage 
them, and notwithstanding all their exertions, and 
all the cries of those who were standing on the 
bank, several of them were washed away from the 
boats, and carried a considerable distance down the 
river by the current: one, a fine black horse, was 
drowned. It was the very latest period when the 
river is passable for horses ; for during the whole 
of the month of September, the people assured me 
* Kashella is properly a Bornu title ; but it is in general use in 
these places along the western frontier. 
