30 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXX. 
as Timbuktu, or in Kulfela, the great market-place of 
Mosi ; and they are especially obliged to wait in case 
they arrive at the beginning of the rainy season, there 
being no k61a nuts before the latter part of the kharif. 
The price of this nut in Timbuktu varies from 10 to 
100 shells each, and always constitutes a luxury, so 
that, even on great festivals, alms consisting of this 
article are distributed by the rich people of the town. 
So much for three of the most important articles 
of trade in Timbuktu, — gold, salt, and the k61a 
nut ; the salt trade comprising also the dealings in 
the native cloth manufactured in Kan6, which forms 
the general medium of exchange for this article, 
and about which I have already spoken in detailing 
the commerce of the great entrepot of Hdusa. I 
will only add here, that, as Kano is not a very old 
place, this want must have been supplied before 
from some other quarter. It is probable that, as 
long as Songhay was flourishing, such an import 
was not needed at all ; and we find from several re- 
marks made by El Bekri, and other ancient geogra- 
phers, that the art of weaving was very flourishing on 
the Upper Niger, but especially in the town of Silla, 
from very ancient times.* It is highly interesting to 
learn from these accounts that even in the eleventh 
century the cotton cloth was called in this region by 
* ElBekii, p. 173:— 
