486 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXXVI. 
of clay. Keeping along the principal street, we con- 
tinued our march for a mile and a quarter before we 
reached the house of the governor, which lies on the 
west side of a small open area, opposite the mosque, 
a flat oblong building, or rather hall, inclosed with 
clay walls, and covered with a flat thatched roof a 
little inclined on one side. Having reached this 
place, my companions fired a salute, which, con- 
sidering the nature of Billama's mission, and the 
peculiar character of the governor, which this oflicer 
ought to have known, and perhaps also since it hap- 
pened to be Friday, was not very judicious. 
Be this as it may, the courtiers or attendants of the 
governor, attracted by the firing, came out one after 
another, and informed us that their master must go 
to the mosque and say his mid-day prayers* before 
he could attend to us or assign us quarters. We there- 
fore dismounted and sat down in the scanty shade of a 
jeja or caoutchouc-tree, which adorns the place between 
the palace and the mosque, while a great number 
of people, amounting to several hundreds, gradually 
collected, all eager to salute me and shake hands with 
me. Fortunately, it was not long before Lowel came 
out from his palace and went into the mosque ; and 
* With regard to the Fulbe, the prayers of dhohor ("ztihura," 
or " sallifanna") may rightly be called mid-day prayers, as they are 
accustomed to pray as soon as the zawal has been observed. 
But in general it would be wrong to call dhohor noon, as is 
very often done ; for none of the other Mohammedans in this 
part of the world will say his dhohor prayer before two o'clock 
p. m. at the very earliest, and generally not before three o'clock. 
