274 
SLAVES IN KANOU. 
days, and then during a night they all fled to the 
rocks and escaped. 
There are but few places to make razzias upon 
around Zinder, except on the Sheikh's provinces, 
unless the Sarkee will go to Maradee, and there he is 
now in friendship, or else is afraid to move in that 
direction. In the account of the booty, it is to be 
understood that all of it was not brought to Zinder, 
some having been distributed amongst the troops 
and volunteers of the rest of the province. I am 
told that the greater part of the slaves will be sent 
to Kanou for sale. It has already been observed, 
that only a few slaves go to the north in comparison 
with the numbers captured. The bulk of the slaves 
of the razzias are employed as serfs on the soil, or 
servants in the town. In Kanoo, a rich man has 
three or four thousand slaves ; these are permitted 
to work on their own account, and they pay him 
as their lord and master a certain number of 
cowries every month : some bring one hundred^ 
some three hundred or six hundred, or as low as 
fifty cowries a -month. On the accumulation of 
these various monthly payments of the poor slaves 
the great man subsists, and is rich and powerful in 
the country. This system prevails in all the Fel- 
latah districts. 
At dusk there was a hue and cry near our house. 
I ran out to see what it was : the noise and stir was 
nothing less than an attempt of a slave to escape. 
The poor fellow was surrounded by a mass of men 
