Chap. XXIII. FORTIFICATIONS OF GAZA'WA. ST 
solemn order, led on by two drams, and affording a 
pleasant specimen of the character of the Hausa 
people. Afterwards I went into the town, which was 
distant from my tent about half a mile. Being much 
exposed to attacks from the Mohammedans, as the 
southernmost pagan place belonging to the Maradi- 
Gober union, Gazawa has no open suburbs outside 
its strong stockade, which is surrounded by a deep 
ditch. It forms almost a regular quadrangle, having 
a gate on each side built of clay, which gives to the 
whole fortification a more regular character, besides 
the greater strength which the place derives from this 
precaution. Each gateway is twelve feet deep, and 
furnished on its top with a rampart sufficiently 
capacious for about a dozen archers. The interior 
of the town is almost of the same character as 
Tasawa ; but Gazawa is rather more closely built, 
though I doubt whether its circumference exceeds 
that of the former place. The market is held every 
day, but, as might be supposed, is far inferior to that 
of Tasawa, which is a sort of little entrepot for the 
merchants coming from the north, and affords much 
more security than Gazawa, which, though an impor- 
tant place with regard to the struggle carried on 
between Paganism and Islamism in these quarters, 
is not so with respect to commerce. The principal 
things offered for sale were cattle, meat, vegetables 
of different kinds, and earthenware pots. Gazawa 
has also a marina or dyeing-place, but of less extent 
than that of Tasawa, as most of its inhabitants are 
D 3 
