296 
SULTAN OF GUDDEMUNI. 
a light dull-red colour. The other man was a mi- 
serable, filthy, blind fellow, whom the first invalid 
was leading-. They were, in fact, a couple of men- 
dicants going* to Zinder on speculation, having come 
from Kuka, begging through all the towns and 
villages. The trade of begging is coextensive with 
man, civilised or uncivilised, in towns or country. 
Africa has a good number of this industrious class 
of people. 
The language of this cluster of villages is 
Haussa, like that of Zinder. the " Haussa of the 
North," as it is called : it varies a little from the 
pure Haussa of Kashna and Kanou. The people 
of this place were all excessively civil. I walked 
out in the evening, and saw about thirty of the 
maidens of Guddemuni (one of the villages) en- 
circling a female dancer, who kept pacing to the 
sound of a rude guitar. At the sight of me they 
all made off. The poor blacks in these villages 
always expect that the white man comes to bring- 
them into slavery. Afterwards I went to salute the 
Sultan. We saw him during two minutes; he kept 
rubbing his hands, as if he were cold. He was a 
sinister-looking man, dressed in a white tobe ; he 
had not the least suspicion of what a Christian 
might be. I made the acquaintance of the taste of 
the doom-palm, in a dish of pastry seasoned by it. 
The taste is something like rhubarb, only a little 
sharper. 
