386 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. XXXIII. 
ral principles it approaches the great South African 
family. Having received, besides my home-made 
supper of mohamsa, several bowls of "deffa " or paste 
of Guinea corn from the natives, I had a long pleasant 
chat in the evening with the two young girls whom I 
have mentioned above, and who brought two fowls 
for sale, but were so particular in their bartering, 
that the bargain was not concluded for full two hours, 
when I at length succeeded in buying the precious 
objects with shells, or kiingona, which have no more 
currency here than they had since we left Kiikawa, 
but which these young ladies wanted for adorning 
their persons. They spoke Kanuri with me, and 
their own language between themselves and with 
some other women who joined them after a while. 
In vain I tried to get a little milk ; although the in- 
habitants in general did not seem to be so badly off, 
yet they had lost all their horses and cattle by the 
exactions of the Bornu officers. Indeed it is really 
lamentable to see the national wellbeing and humble 
happiness of these pagan communities trodden down 
so mercilessly by their Mohammedan neighbours. 
The tempest which had threatened us the whole 
afternoon discharged itself in the distance. 
Sunday ^ e ou ^ a ^ a tolerably early hour to 
June 8th. p ass a forest of considerable extent. In 
the beginning it was rather light, such as the Ka- 
nuri call " dfrride," and at times interrupted by 
open pasture-ground covered with the freshest herb- 
age, and full of the footprints of elephants of every 
