JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA TO KANO. 
127 
with a silver head. He said I had got some of the same kind, and 
he wanted one. I said I could not indulge him with one, unless I 
gave him that intended for Bello. He then begged my travelling 
knife and fork. I said, “What, then, I am to go without, and eat 
with my fingers ! he had better go to Tabra, and take all I had.” 
He observed he would certainly not do that ; that he would send 
me to Kano, and that I should go in five or six days after this. lie 
then went home, and sent me, as a present, a small country horse, 
which will do well enough for Pascoe to ride. I have now two 
horses and a mare. 
The Sanson, or camp, is like a large square village, built of 
small bee-hive-like huts, thatched with straw, having four large 
broad streets, and with a square or clear place near the huts of 
the king. Only for the number of horses feeding, and some 
picketed near the huts, and the men all going armed, and num- 
bers of drums beating, it would pass for a well-inhabited village. 
Here are to be seen weavers, taylors, women spinning cotton, others 
reeling off, some selling foo-foo and accassons, others crying yams 
and paste, little markets at every green tree, holy men counting 
their beads, and dissolute slaves drinking roa bum. 
Monday, 24th. — Morning cool and cloudy. In the early part 
of the morning I went to take leave of the king, whom I found in 
his hut, surrounded by Fellatas, one of whom was reading the 
Koran aloud for the benefit of the whole ; the meaning of which 
not one of them understood, not even the reader. This may seem 
odd to an Englishman ; but it is very common for a man, both in 
Bornou and Houssa, to be able to read the Koran fluently, and 
not understand a word in it but “ Allah,” or able to read any other 
book. They left off reading when I came in ; and as soon as the 
compliments of the morning were over, the king begged me to 
give him my sword, which I flatly refused, but promised to give 
him the five dollars, the staff*, and the pistol, whenever I was 
