162 
JOURNEY FROM BOUSSA TO KANO. 
and the inhabitants numerous. Towards sunset several large herds 
of cattle came in from grazing in the neighbouring woods, and were 
secured in thorny enclosures outside the walls for the night. 
Saturday, 15th. — At 4. 30 P.M. arrived and halted at a town 
called Roma, in English, Soup, whose walls are extensive ; and, 
from the number of shady trees within them, must have once been 
a populous and well inhabited place. The present inhabitants do 
not amount to more than forty, poor, mean, and miserable. They 
were all collected under one of the old shady trees in the town to 
receive me, with their chief man at their head, bearing a long white 
wand, or peeled palm-tree branch in his hand, dressed in a ragged 
dirty white tobe, his skin spotted black and white like a leopard 
with disease. He conducted me to his house, which was large and 
spacious ; but the courts were overgrown with weeds and grass ; 
the roofs of the huts falling in; the floors wet, damp, and dirty. 
I could not amongst the whole find one fit to shelter man or beast. 
1 went out, and he accompanied me until, amongst the untenanted 
houses, I found one, where I put my baggage for the night. He 
brought me a little corn in a gourd for my horses, and I asked him the 
cause of the sad state in w hich the town was : he said, the Fellatas, 
and held his peace. “ Why is your house in such a state ?” I asked. 
He said he once had fifty wives, but they had all run away one after 
another, and he could not take care of it himself. Plenty of guinea 
fowls came to roost on the shady tree. Towards sunset I went out 
and shot six, which served all hands. 
Sunday, 16th. — At 12. 20 halted at the town of Aushin, where 
1 was provided w ith as good a house as the place afforded ; and 
this being the day of the aid kebur, or great feast, they had killed 
a bullock, of which the head man of the town sent me a part, with 
Indian corn for my horses and camel. I had not taken possession 
of my house more than ten minutes, and hung my watch and com- 
pass up to the rafters, as w as my usual custom, than, having occasion 
