Chap. LXXXIV» ATTACK OF RHEUMATISM. 
399 
Laid me up for a long time, and which, causing me 
many sleepless nights, reduced me to an extraordi- 
nary degree of weakness, from which I did not 
recover for the greater part of the month. Never- 
theless, I did not desist from requesting the Sheikh, 
in the most urgent terms, to send me on my way, 
and to supply me at least with camels, in compensa- 
tion for the loss which I had sustained through the 
insurrection. I had hopes that he would allow me to 
set out at the beginning of the next Mohammedan 
month, and I was therefore extremely delighted when 
two respectable Arabs came forward and offered to 
accompany me on my journey to Fezzan, although I 
did not much rely on the expectations which they 
raised. Meanwhile, on the 3rd February, the pupils 
of the Sheikh el Bakay, who had stayed so long be- 
hind in Kano, reached Kiikawa, and their arrival was 
not at all disagreeable to me, although they put me 
to fresh expense ; for, by their authority, as being 
the followers of a highly venerated Mohammedan chief, 
they increased the probability of my safely entering 
upon my home journey. I therefore went with my 
friends to pay a visit to Zen el A^bidin, the son-in-law 
of the Sheikh el Bakdy, who, having been formerly 
employed by the Sheikh 'Omar as a messenger to the 
emir of Sokoto, was now again to return eastward ; 
for having in the beginning been treated rather un- 
kindly by his wife Zena, " The Ornament," El Bakay's 
daughter, he had thought it better to console himself 
with a pilgrimage to Mekka, and did not now appear 
