110 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. XXV. 
stirring the juice, and mixing with the indigo some 
colouring wood in order to give it the desired tint ; 
there another, drawing a shirt from the dye-pot, or 
hanging it up on a rope fastened to the trees ; there 
two men beating a well-dyed shirt, singing the while, 
and keeping good time ; further on, a blacksmith busy 
with his rude tools in making a dagger 
which will surprise, by the sharpness 
of its blade, those who feel disposed 
to laugh at the workman's instruments, 
a formidable barbed spear, or the more 
estimable and useful instruments of 
husbandry ; in another place, men and 
women making use of an ill-frequented 
thoroughfare, as a " kaudi tseggenabe," 
to hang up, along the fences, their 
cotton thread for weaving ; close by, a group of in- 
dolent loiterers lying in the sun and idling away their 
hours. 
Here a caravan from Gonja arriving with the de- 
sired kola-nut, chewed by all who have " ten kurdi" 
to spare from their necessary wants, or a caravan 
laden with natron, starting for Nupe, or a troop of 
A'sbenawa going off with their salt for the neighbour- 
ing towns, or some Arabs leading their camels, heavily 
laden with the luxuries of the north and east (the 
" kaya-n-ghabbes ") to the quarter of the Ghadamsiye ; 
there, a troop of gaudy, warlike-looking horsemen 
galloping towards the palace of the governor to bring 
him the news of a new inroad of Serki Ibram. Every- 
