352 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXXXII. 
affording sufficient ground for encamping. Alto- 
gether the country presented a very different as- 
pect from what it had done on our outward jour- 
ney, and the watercourse near Zyrmi with its steep 
banks, offered a difficult passage, although the water 
was not more than a foot and a half deep. My 
camels being either knocked up or having entirely 
succumbed, I endeavoured in vain to procure a good 
ox of burden, the principal reason of my difficulty 
being, that I was not provided with shells, and, in 
consequence, I had some trouble the next day in 
reaching the town of Kdmmane, where the ghaladima 
took up his quarters. Already on the road, I had 
observed a good deal of indigo and cotton culti- 
vated between the sorghum. Even here close to the 
town, we found the grounds divided between the 
cultivation of rice and indigo ; and I soon learnt that 
the whole industry of the inhabitants consisted in 
weaving and dyeing. They have very little millet of 
any kind, so that their food is chiefly limited to 
ground-nuts or kolche They have no cattle, but their 
cotton is celebrated on account of its strength, and 
the shirts which they dye here, are distinguished for 
the peculiar lustre which they know how to give to 
them. Although the inhabitants have only about 
twenty horses, they are able, according to their own 
statement, to bring into the field not less than 5000 
archers. However exaggerated this statement may 
be, they had not found it very difficult, the pre- 
ceding year, to drive back the expedition of the 
