184 
ETIQUETTE OF A BLACK COURT. 
"Long live the Sultan! God bless him!" This is 
the first occasion on which I have witnessed this 
degrading custom, this abject worship of the repre- 
sentative of power. The scene was perfectly African 
and negro. 
I was squatted amidst a number of courtiers, 
one of whom had a sort of double skull, another 
smaller skull raised above the larger one, — a pro- 
tuberance which came from an accident in infancy. 
This double-skulled man was the chief of the do- 
mestics. 
The Sultan was in a merry humour, and smil- 
ingly asked after my health. We then read our 
letters of recommendation, which pleased him. He 
observed that the route via Aheer was good. "How 
good," asked Yusuf, " when we are arrived here 
naked, and stripped of everything?" At which his 
highness burst out laughing, with all the people. 
There was now observed a little bustle behind, 
and his highness called out "Silence!" like a 
sheriff in a court of law. I begged the inter- 
preter to tell the Sultan that our present was 
small, for we had been stripped by the Tuaricks. 
This he whispered in his ear ; after which I slipped 
a packet of powder and shot into the hands of one 
of the principal courtiers, telling him it was for the 
Sultan, and he carried it off. I did not place it 
with the other presents, because the servant of Haj 
Bashaw, sent from Kuka, forbad my giving his 
highness any powder and shot, alleging that this 
