COMMUNICATIONS. 
153 
the purpofe, he is laid to have a cuftom, (the refult of idle va- 
nity or of poUtic oftentation) of directing a date tree to be placed 
as a threiliold to one of the gates of his capital, and of com- 
manding his horfemen to enter the town one by one, that the 
parting of the tree in the middle, when worn through by the 
trampling of the horfes, may enable him to judge of the fuf- 
ficiency of their numbers, and operate as a fignal that his levy is 
eompleat^ 
In their Manners , the people of Bornou are Angularly cour- 
teous and humane. They will not pafs a ftranger on the road 
till they have flopped to filute him : the moft violent of their 
quarrels are only contefts of words ; and though a part of the bu- 
finefs of their hufbandry is affigned to the women, yet, as their 
employment is confined to that of dropping the feed in the fur- 
rows, and of removing the weeds with a hoe, it has made more 
of the amufement of occafional occupation, than of the harllinefs 
of continued labour. 
Pailionately attached to the tumultuous gratifications of play, 
yet unacquainted with any game but drafts, they often fit down 
on the ground, and forming holes to anfwer the purpofe of 
fquares, fupply the place of men with dates, or the meaner fub- 
X. ilitute 
