200 
RESIDENCE AT SOCCATOO AND MAGARIA. 
perly arranged, each man’s cluster of huts being fenced round with 
matting, nearly all the vacant places are filled up with houses or 
enclosures for cattle. A new wall has been built, according to the 
present Goobur mode of fortifying a town ; which is, to build a low 
wall, with a deep ditch outside, and to erect on the wall a stockade 
of rough stakes, firmly fixed in an upright posture, through the 
openings of which the people inside are enabled to shoot their arrows 
and fire muskets, when they have any. This new wall was not quite 
completed when I arrived ; but as every man having a house in the 
town was to bear his part in the work, and every man of consider- 
ation who held office under the sultan was to superintend that part 
of it next to his residence, as well as to employ his slaves and 
servants in bringing wood and materials, the progress advanced 
rapidly. 
This evening we had a courier from the nearest town in the pro- 
vince of Zamfra, bringing intelligence that Aleva, the rebel sultan 
of Goobur, had died by an arrow wound in his side, which he re- 
ceived when we made the attack. Whether this will have any 
effect in bringing about a reconciliation with Bello and them I 
know not. 
Thursday, 2d. — Warm, with light flying clouds. The Juma, 
or place of worship, in Magaria, is only a temporary one. I have 
had several opportunities of seeing them at prayers, being only a 
square enclosure of matting, supported by stakes, and open on one 
side, which is to the east. The Iman, or priest, a head man, stands 
at a little distance in front, on his mat ; the rest of the people in 
rows behind him. He repeats the prayer, and those behind him also 
repeating inwardly at the same time, and with the greatest regu- 
larity, in a kneeling posture, with their heads inclined. 
I had a long visit from Prince Atego this morning, who was 
amazingly civil : at last it came out that he was afflicted with a dis- 
order which he represented as being very common in this country. 
