Chap. XXXIV. THE GOVERNOR'S MANSION. 
447 
behind me to buy some articles which we wanted, 
and proceeded with my kashella towards the ra- 
vine, and ascending the opposite bank, entered the 
straggling quarter of the Fulbe, which, in a very 
remarkable manner, is adorned with a single speci- 
men of the charming gonda-tree, or " dukiije " (the 
Carica papaya), and a single specimen of the gigina 
or dugbi, the Hyphcena which I have frequently 
mentioned; at all events not more than these two 
specimens are seen rearing their tapering forms 
above the huts and fences. Then we directed our 
steps towards the dwelling of the governor, which 
impressed me by its magnificence when compared 
with the meanness of the cottages around. A very 
spacious oblong yard, surrounded with a high clay 
wall, encircled several apartments, the entrance being 
formed by a round cool hut of about twenty-five 
feet diameter, the clay walls of which, from the 
ground to the border of the thatched roof, measured 
about ten feet in height, and had two square doors of 
about eight feet in height, one towards the street, and 
the other on the inside, — altogether a splendid place 
in the hot season. Here, too, the floor was at present 
thickly strewn with pebbles. 
But the master of this noble mansion was an un- 
happy blind man, who, leaning upon the shoulders of 
his servants, was led into the room by a mallem or 
modibo, one of the finest men I have seen in the 
country, and more like a European than a native of 
Negroland, tall and broad-shouldered, and remark- 
