170 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXVI. 
from Kano to Toto, and that from Sokoto to Gonja. 
He also gave me the first accurate description of 
the immense town Alori, or Ilori, the great centre 
of the conquering Fulbe in Yoruba, which I shall 
have frequent opportunity of mentioning in the 
course of my proceedings. This man, who was really 
very intelligent, had travelled a great deal, and had 
made a long stay in Stambul, assured me that Alori 
was, without the least doubt, larger than the latter 
city. Yet this immense town, of which the first 
accounts are due, I think, to Capt. Clapperton, is 
sought for in vain in many of our most recent maps. 
Greatly delighted with my visit to the market, 
though not a little affected by the exposure to the 
sun during the hot hours, I returned to my quarters ; 
for though a practised traveller will bear very well 
the most scorching power of the sun, if he sets out 
in the morning, and by degrees becomes inured to 
greater and greater heat, he may suffer fatally from 
exposing himself for a long time to the mid-day 
sun, after having spent the morning in the shade. 
Later in the afternoon, the governor sent, as a gift 
to me and *Abd el Khafif, through his principal 
courtiers (such as the ghaladima, the chiroma, and 
others, who were accompanied by a long train of fol- 
lowers), a young bullock, they being instructed at 
the same time to receive in return the present, or 
" salam," as it is generally called, which we had pre- 
pared for him. I gave them a subeta and a small 
flask with rose oil, which is an article in great 
