492 
adAms's narrative. 
eight small rooms on the ground floor. All mer- 
chandise, on its arrival at Tombuctoo, is brought 
into this enclosure, where it pays a duty. M» 
Dupuis generally confirms this, but seems of opi- 
nion that the enclosure must be much larger than 
Adams represents it. He says it is called the 
kusba, or citadel, and that not only the merchan- 
dise, but the merchants, are frequently accommo- 
dated within it. Both the king and queen were 
old and grey-headed ; the queen immensely fat. 
Her dress consisted of blue nankeen, edged with 
gold lace, and reached only a few inches below 
the knee. Her head-dress was a blue nankeen 
turban, v/orn only on occasions of ceremony. She 
wore no shoes, in consequence of which her feet 
appeared as hard and dry " as the hoofs of an ass. 
She wore besides a profusion of ornaments of very 
white bone, (ivory?) large ear-rings, and neck- 
laces of gold. The king's dress was a blue nan- 
keen frock, profusely ornamented with gold. He 
had about thirty armed attendants, who remain- 
ed constantly by him., In walking the streets, 
his subjects saluted him by touching his head with 
their hands, and then kissing them. He, as well 
as all his principal officers, were negroes, and 
Tombuctoo appeared to Adams completely a ne- 
gro city. On this fact, so remarkable and so 
little expected, some observations will be made 
at the end of this chapter. 
