JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA TO KANO. 
141 
females are generally sent round the town selling the small rice 
balls, fried beans, &c. and bringing a supply of water for the day. 
The master of the house generally takes a walk to the market, or 
sits in the shade at the door of his house, hearing the news, or 
speaking of the price of natron or other goods. The weavers are 
daily employed at their trade ; some are sent to cut wood, and 
bring it to market ; others to bring grass for the horses that may 
belong to the house, or to take to the market to sell ; numbers, at 
the beginning of the rainy season, are employed in clearing the 
ground for sowing the maize and millet ; some are sent on distant 
journeys to buy and sell for their master or mistress, and very 
rarely betray their trust. About noon they return home, when 
all have a mess of the pudding called waki, or boiled beans, and 
about two or three in the afternoon they return to their different 
employments, on which they remain until near sunset, when they 
count their gains to their master or mistress, who receives it, and 
puts it carefully away in their strong room. They then have a meal 
of pudding and a little fat or stew. The mistress of the house, 
when she goes to rest, has her feet put into a cold poultice of the 
pounded henna leaves. The young then go to dance and play, if it 
is moonlight, and the old to lounge and converse in the open square 
of the house, or in the outer coozie, where they remain until the 
cool of the night, or till the approach of morning drives them into 
shelter. 
Their marriages are the same amongst the Mohamedans as they 
are in other countries, where they profess that faith. The pagan 
part first agree to go together, giving the father and mother a 
present, and, if rich, the present is sent with music, each separate 
article being borne on the head of a female slave. The Moha- 
medans bury in the same manner as they do in other parts of 
the world. The pagans dig a round hole like a well, about six feet 
