FROM SOCCATOO TO DUNRORA. 
295 
beads to sell ; on which several buyers came into my hut and pur- 
chased freely, giving me fifteen or twenty cowries each for the 
needles, whilst the Arabs could only get ten at most for theirs ; 
but whether they conceived my needles to be superior, or whether 
it was the desire of obtaining something of a white man, I did not 
learn. Unlike the princes of Houssa, Borgoo, Nyffe, Cuttum- 
kora, and other places in the interior, the sultan of Cuttup gives 
his wives unrestricted liberty. 
A 11 old woman came to me one afternoon, full of grief, informing 
me of her having frequently been robbed of the little money she 
had saved from her earnings, from holes in her hut, where she had 
hid it, by some of her neighbours and acquaintances. She entreated 
me to let her have a charm to prevent such dishonest acts in future. 
Being ever willing to oblige the simple-hearted Africans, I gave 
her a tea-spoonful of common sweet oil, in a small phial, telling her 
that she must, on her return to her lmt, pour it into the hole in 
which she intended concealing her money; and that if any one but 
herself touched the money while there, without her permission, he 
would not long survive. 1 advised her by all means to give the 
virtues of this charm as extensive a circulation as possible, and I 
had no doubt she would not be robbed again. The poor old woman 
could not express the gratitude she felt for my kindness; she 
dropped on her knees before me, thanked me in the warmest terms, 
and pressed me to accept of forty cowries, the only money she had 
then in the world. Of course I refused to deprive the old woman 
of her substance, and sent her away highly pleased with the treat- 
ment she had received. 
16th.- — Having paid my respects to the king and his wives last 
evening, left Cuttup at six in the morning ; and pursuing a south- 
west direction till half-past one, when we proceeded due south, 
arrived at Coogie, a small town, at half-past three in the afternoon. 
Owing to the bites and stings of myriads of dies, the asses, for the 
