There are persons called Fighi (from “faquire,” a poor man), who subsist by writing letters, and are employed to read those received by the principal inhabitants, who pay them in corn. All the Sultan’s papers and letters pass through the hands of his scribes, who, in consequence (though his purchased slaves), are men of importance, and they accordingly give themselves great airs, knowing that their master, being unable to read, cannot do without their services. Few men can read from any book but their own, which they have used from infancy. Old Hadje Mahmoud, our neighbour, had gone through the same volume every morning for forty years, and yet was unable to repeat one page of it by heart. There were certain passages of it, which, on reading, regularly caused him to exclaim, “God bless me! wonderful! extraordinary! God is great!” as if he had never seen or heard of the contents before. Many of the Fighis, however, have good memories, and by constantly repeating sentences of the Koran for thirty or forty years, manage to know it by heart. The lower classes work neatly in leather; they weave a few coarse barracans, and make iron work in a solid though clumsy manner. One or two work in gold and silver with much skill, considering the badness of their tools; and every man is capable of acting as a carpenter or mason. The wood being that of the date tree, and the houses being built of mud, very little elegance or skill is necessary. Much deference is paid to the artists in leather or metals, who are called (_par excellence_) “Sta,” or master; as, “leather master,”—“iron master,” &c. No individuals arrive at any eminence of character, or, from their abilities, are exalted above the people, except such Marāboots as have most cunning and hypocrisy. They become privileged, courted, and revered while living, and prayers are addressed to them for their mediation, after they are dead. The language here is Arabic, but differs materially from the dialect of Egypt. From the constant communication with Bornou and Soudan, the languages of both these countries are generally spoken, and many of their words are introduced into the Arabic. The family slaves, and their children by their masters, constantly speak the language of the country whence they originally come. Their writing is in the Mogrebyn character, which is used, I believe, universally in western Africa, and differs much from that of the east. The pronunciation also is very different, the Kāf ق being pronounced as a G, and only marked with one nunnation, thus ف, and the F is pointed below ڢ. They have no idea of arithmetic, but reckon every thing by dots on the sand, ten in a line; many can hardly tell how much two and two amount to. They expressed great surprise at our being able to add numbers together without fingering.