“ HALCYON DA YS” 
155 
with thick hands of beads, but they generally have a 
short leathern apron or petticoat. The wares of these 
people consist principally of Indian corn, in the ripe 
grain, and also green cobs ; two or three kinds of 
beans and peas; flour made from millet seed; tobacco 
in the leaf; honey; bananas, ripe and unripe ; cala¬ 
bashes of sour milk or rancid butter, and numbers of 
live fowls. Perhaps on such a day as this I have 
purchased as many as eighty fowls for one “ hand ” 
(about an ell) of cloth each (approximate value 2 d. an 
ell). Or there may by chance be a goat or sheep for 
sale; but this not often, as Mandara is supposed to 
own all the live-stock of the country as personal 
property, although he gives many goats, sheep, and 
cows to his subjects as presents, conditionally on their 
not being parted with, so he himself is almost the 
exclusive dealer in live-stock. I amuse myself by a 
little friendly chaffering before lunch, but leave all 
serious purchases to my servants, for the natives 
invariably deceive me when I wish to buy, either 
palming off old scraggy fowls, bad eggs, and adulte¬ 
rated honey on my inexperience, or else charging me 
extravagant prices. 
One little item may be noticed in this market which 
will show how observant and practical the people are, 
and how they seize any lawful means of making 
money. I have only resided here, let us suppose, 
some few weeks, and yet the natives have noticed my 
fondness for eating blackberries, a thing they never 
do themselves for some reason or other. Consequently, 
without any hint from me, children have been sent by 
their parents to collect industriously all the berries 
to be got, and here they are, wrapped in banana- 
leaves, on sale for a trifle in cloth or beads. Also 
