LUCAS. 
325 
rnily. As soon as they have fixed their choice, 
they conduct the new sovereign, in silence, to the 
corpse of his unburied predecessor, and pointing 
out, in forcible language, the virtues and defects 
which marked his character, they thus conclude, 
" You see before you the end of your mortal ca- 
" reer : — The eternal, which succeeds to it, will 
" be miserable or happy, in proportion as your 
" reign shall prove a blessing or a curse to your 
" people." This practice has some resemblance 
to the ancient tribunal of the dead in Egypt. 
The military force of Bornou consists of cavalry, 
armed with the sabre, the pike, and the bow. 
Fire-arms are not entirely untnown, but too diffi- 
cult to be procured. When the Sultan takes the 
field, he causes a date-tree to be placed on the 
threshold of one of the gates of his capital, and 
ordering his horsemen to enter the city one by 
one, determines the levy to be complete, when 
the tree is worn through the middle. The arti- 
cles of commerce exported from Bornou are gold 
dust, slaves, horses, salt, and civet. The com- 
plexion of the natives of Bornou is black, but 
their features are different from those of the ne- 
groes. 
On the north of the Niger, to the south-west of 
Bornou, lies the extensive and powerful empire of 
Cassina. On the north it is bounded by the moun- 
tains of Eyre, which separate it from Fezzan, and 
