295 
CHAP. LXXXI. 
SECOND RESIDENCE IN SAY. — JOURNEY THROUGH DENDINA 
AND KEBBI. 
Having rested awhile in my hut, I, with my com- 
panions, obeyed the summons of the governor, and 
found our poor old friend, A'bu-Bakr, in the very 
same room where we had left him more than a year 
previously. He was now quite lame in consequence 
of his disease of seni, but looked a little better than 
on the former occasion, and I soon had an opportu- 
nity of admiring his accurate knowledge of the coun- 
try ; for, when A'hmed el Wadawi, had read to him 
the kasdid or poems addressed by my friend El Bakay 
to the emir A'hmedu, and began to relate some of 
tlie more remarkable incidents of our journey, he was 
corrected every moment in the nomenclature of the 
places by the governor, who appeared to possess the 
most accurate philological knowledge of all the 
spots along the river as far as Tondibi, where he had 
been obliged to turn his back on his voyage up the 
Niger. He apparently took great interest in the en- 
deavour of the Sheikh to open a communication with 
the Fiilbe of Gando and Sokoto, and expressed his 
deep sorrow that on his former voyage, he was pre- 
u 4 
