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JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA TO KANO. 
Yourriba, Cubbi, Youri, Borgoo, Sockatoo, and Zamfra on the north, 
Bornou and Houssa on the east, and, before the civil war, people 
from Benin, Jabbo, and the southern parts of Nyffe, used to resort 
to this town as a central point of trade, where the natives of the 
different countries were sure to get a ready sale for their goods ; 
either selling them for cowries, or exchanging them for others by 
way of barter. Those who sold their goods for cowries attend the 
market daily, and when they have completed their sale, buy at once 
the goods or wares they want, and return home. Such is the way 
of the small traders, who are nine out of ten women, and are prin- 
cipally from the west part of the Quorra, even as far off as Niki: 
they carry their goods on their heads in packages, from sixty to 
eighty and a hundred pounds weight. The goods these people 
bring from the west are principally salt, and cloths worn by the 
women round their loins, of about six yards in length and two in 
breadth, made of the narrow striped cloth, in which red silk is ge- 
nerally woven, and a great deal of blue cotton ; this is called Azane, 
and the best are worth about three thousand to five thousand cow- 
ries, or two dollars : — Jabbo cloths, which are about the same length 
as the others, and about the breadth of our sail-cloth, are worn by 
slaves, and have a stripe or two of blue in them ; the poor classes 
also wear them, men and women : — Peppers, called monsoura, shitta, 
and kimba ; monsoura is like our East India pepper; shitta is the 
malagetta pepper of the coast; kimba is a small thin pepper, growing 
on a bush, near the sea coast, in Yourriba, of a red colour, like 
Chili pepper : — Red wood from Benin, which is pounded to a powder 
and made into a paste ; women and children are rubbed with 
this, mixed with a little grease, every morning ; and very frequently 
a woman is to be seen with a large score of it on her face, arms, or 
some part of her body, as a cure for some imaginary pain or other : — 
A small quantity of calico or red cloth is sometimes brought, which 
is of European manufacture. They take back principally natron, 
