366 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXXII. 
pools at the foot of the hill, was foul and offensive. 
These pools are enlivened by a great number of 
water-fowl, chiefly herons and flamingoes. 
The forenoon of Wednesday also I gave up to the 
solicitation of my A'damawa companions, and usefully 
employed my time in writing " bolide Fulfulde," or 
the language of the Fiilbe, and more particularly the 
dialect spoken in A'damawa, which is indeed very 
different from the Fulfulde spoken in Gober and 
Kebbi. Meanwhile old Mallem Katiiri was bitten 
by a scorpion, and I had to dress the wound with 
a few drops of ammonia, for which he was very 
grateful. 
In the afternoon we pursued our march; and 
I then became aware that we had made a great 
detour, Maiduguri, as well as Mabani, not lying on 
the direct route. We had been joined in the latter 
place by a party of " pilgrim traders " from the far 
distant Masena, or, as in European maps the name 
is generally written, Massina, on their home-journey 
from Mekka, who excited much interest in me. The 
chief person among them was a native of Hamd- 
Allahi*, the capital of the new Piillo kingdom of 
Melle, or Masena, who carried with him a consider- 
able number of books, which he had bought in the 
* This is the only form of the name actually used by the natives, 
as the founders of that city have not taken the trouble to ask 
scholars if that was grammatically right. However, there is a 
small village of the name of Hamdu-lillahi, as we shall see, but 
entirely distinct from the former. 
