JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA TO KANO. 
109 
people their children or their flocks ; and any of the slaves of the 
sultans passing through their villages live at free quarters. They 
are pagans ; and their temple here was a platform raised about five 
feet from the ground, on which were piled the heads of the hippo- 
potamus and the alligator. The upper and under jaws of the alli- 
gators appeared in all to be of an equal length. 1 took some of 
the teeth from one that was last offered. Their language differs 
from that of the surrounding inhabitants. 
The Quorra at this village was in one whole stream, and not 
above three-fourths the breadth of the Thames at Somerset House 
at high water, with a current from about two to two and a half or 
three knots: the colour of the water red and muddy: the banks 
on each side the river rising to the height of forty-five or fifty feet ; 
in some places rocky : about a quarter of a mile below, it divided 
into three rocky streams. 
At 7. 30 A.M. left Songa : the road through a woody country, 
cut up by deep ravines with very rocffy beds : the rocks mostly of 
red and gray granite. At 9 A. M. passed between the east end of 
a rocky hill, composed of porphyry, and the river ; the hills on the 
east side appearing of the same : the river running with great force 
through this natural gap, which appeared as if cut on purpose to 
let the waters through. The river between Songa and this is full 
of rocky islets and rapids. After having passed the hill about a 
mile, the western bank shelved away from the river, leaving a high 
ridge by the river side, composed of sand and clay, with occasion- 
ally ridges of clay-slate, between which and the high ground it 
appeared as if it had formerly been the bed of the river, and is now 
a swamp. The ridge close to the river was studded with villages ; 
the river full of small rocky islands, and occasionally rapids. At 
10. 30 arrived at the village of Comie, or, as it is more commonly 
called, Wonjerque, or the king’s ferry. Here the river is all in one 
stream ; and this place is the great ferry of the caravans to and from 
Houssa, ISTyffe, &c. The village is built on the high ground, the 
