164 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chaf. XXVI. 
and cheerful, the latter melancholic, dejected and 
brutal ; and the same difference is visible in their 
physiognomies — the former having in general very 
pleasant and regular features, and more graceful 
forms, while the Kaniiri, with his broad face, his wide 
nostrils, and his large bones, makes a far less agreeable 
impression, especially the women, who are very plain 
and certainly among the ugliest in all Negroland, 
notwithstanding their coquetry, in which they do not 
yield at all to the Hausa women, 
Birmenawa is a very small town, but strongly for- 
tified with an earthen wall and two deep ditches, one 
inside and the other outside, and only one gate on 
the west side. Around it there is a good deal of 
cultivation, while the interior is tolerably well inha- 
bited. Konche, who was in a great hurry to reach 
Giimmel, would have preferred going on directly 
without entering the town ; but as I was obliged to 
visit it in order to change my horseman, it being of 
some importance to me to arrive in Giimmel with an 
escort, he accompanied me. The population consists 
of mixed Hausa and Kaniiri elements. 
Having obtained another man, we continued our 
march through a country partly under cultivation, 
partly covered with underwood, and were pleased, 
near the village Tokun, to find the Hausa custom of a 
little market held by the women on the roadside still 
prevailing ; but this was the last scene of the kind I 
was to see for a long time. We reached the con- 
siderable town of Giimmel just when the sun began 
