476 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXXV. 
On leaving the outer bank of the river our way led 
through a fine park-like plain, dotted with a few 
mimosas of middling size, and clear of underwood. 
The sides of the path were strewn with skeletons of 
horses, marking the line followed by the late expedi- 
tion of the governor of Yola, on its return from Lere, 
or the Mbana country. Having then entered upon 
cultivated ground, we reached the first cluster of huts 
of the large straggling village Chabajaure, or Chaba- 
jaule, situated in a most fertile and slightly undula- 
ting tract; and having kept along it for little less 
than a mile and a half, we took up our quarters in 
a solitary and secluded cluster of huts, including a 
very spacious courtyard. 
It was a sign of warm hospitality that, although 
the whole caravan had fallen to the charge of a single 
household, sufficient quantities not only of " nyiro," 
the common dish of Indian corn, but even of meat, 
were brought to us in the evening. While passing the 
village I had observed that all the corn on the fields 
was " ger6ri," or Pennisetum (millet — dukhn), a kind 
of grain originally, it would seem, so strange to the 
Fiilbe, that they have not even a word of their own 
for it, having only modified a little the Hausa word 
"gero;" not a single blade of " bairi," or sorghum, 
and is natural enough, considering the extensive inundations with 
which the rise of these African rivers is attended. This state 
of the rivers in the tropical climes is so irregular, that Leo 
Africanus has made quite the same observation. L. i. c. 28., 
Descrizione dell' Africa. 
