316 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXX. 
good height, they bear fatigue marvellously — a fact 
of which one of my own horses gave the best proof, 
having carried me during three years of almost in- 
cessant fatigue on my expedition to Kanem, to the 
Musgu country, to Bagirmi, to Timbuktu, and back to 
Kano, where my poor dear companion died in Decem- 
ber, 1854 : and let it be taken into consideration that, 
though I myself am not very heavy, I constantly car- 
ried with me a double-barrelled gun, one or two pairs 
of pistols, a quantity of powder and shot, several in- 
struments, my journals, and generally even my coffee- 
pot and some little provision. 
But to return to the picture of life which the town 
of Kiikawa presents. With the exception of Mon- 
days, when just during the hottest hours of the day 
there is much crowd and bustle in the market-place, 
it is very dull from about noon till three o'clock in 
the afternoon ; and even during the rest of the day, 
those scenes of industry, which in the varied pano- 
rama of Kano meet the eye, are here sought for in 
vain. Instead of those numerous dyeing-yards or 
marina" full of life and bustle, though certainly also 
productive of much filth and foul odours, which spread 
over the town of Kano, there is only a single, and a 
very poor marina in Kukawa ; no beating of tobes is 
heard, nor the sound of any other handicraft. 
There is a great difference of character between 
these two towns ; and, as I have said above, the 
Bornu people are by temperament far more phleg- 
matic than those of Kano. The women in general 
