312 
THE OARS GURAI. 
The mode of salutation for a sultan is peculiar 
in these provinces. It consists in holding up and 
back the lower part of the arm, and moving it up 
and down — to denote strength, probably ; an intima- 
tion of local strength, as well as that of the body 
generally. I have been often saluted in this man- 
ner, and the mode is employed to strangers or any 
distinguished person. 
N.B. — The people of Kanem have not the 
shonshona. 
The oars of the boat are now carried, as the 
people say, by Ben-Adam (children of Adam, i.e. 
men). It is certainly more difficult to get them 
through these African forests than over the rocks 
of Sahara on the camel's back. Five servants of 
the Sultan of Zinder left this morning, having 
brought them thus far, to return. I gave them a 
little present of wada and rings. 
Gurai is somewhat smaller than Zinder, having a 
population of perhaps seven thousand souls. I have 
overrated the population of Zinder : that city, proba- 
bly, does not contain more than ten thousand souls, if 
so many. On emerging from the Saharan Desert, 
where we had been accustomed to bestow the name 
of town upon great scattered villages, with a few 
hundred inhabitants, Zinder appeared to me quite 
a capital city. The town of Gurai is scattered 
about on several hills, and down their slopes. 
These hills are bare of trees and vegetation. 
There is a drv ditch surrounding the town. It 
