I am the more desirous to see continual repetitions of the sights peculiar to the land of Bari, because, by the festive occasion of the royal visit, these are multiplied in every form, and therefore I am still acquiring much knowledge. The square shields, about three feet long and two feet broad, with scallopped edges projecting into four sharp points, appear to be little used. They are of neat’s hide, and have a stick badly fixed in the centre to hold them by, the edge of which is not even turned to give a firmer hold. They have blue and red stripes crossed, each of a hand’s breadth, as their external decoration, and these are coloured with earth, so that they are easily obliterated. The Frenchmen made white stripes with chalk between these colours, and thus was the tricolour found in the middle of Africa. Whether the blue and red streaks serve as signs to distinguish one party from the other in warfare, I know not. _Generally_ the men here carried round, high-arched hand-shields, a foot in length, made of very solid thick leather. These hand-shields appear now, and perhaps exclusively, adapted for warding off a blow with the clubs, for they would probably be of little avail as a protection against arrows and spears to such colossal bodies, in spite of all the dexterity of these men. Yet they gave me to understand previously, that they warded off hostile spears by means of these shields. The boar’s tusks on the bracelets were mostly imitations of ivory, and therefore like the small iron bull’s horns, are perhaps symbols of valour and the power of nature. They had, besides, all kinds of knick-knackeries on the arm and neck, such as little tortoise-shells, dogs’ or monkeys’ teeth, entire strings of which even they wear, pieces of bones, &c. It struck me that little bones of this kind are either remembrances or amulets, from the circumstance of their always wishing to retain them when we had already purchased the articles to which they were fastened. The iron necklaces were of very different kinds: close to them were iron ornaments arranged in a row, in the form of a narrow leaf, or in small open spindles, from which little red fruits projected. I observed here also, the wide iron rings for the neck, of the thickness of a finger, which reach over the head, and down to the middle of the breast, and are not only worn in Khartùm, but also in Egypt, by the daughters of the Fellàhs. We here find an old fellow who will not sell his spear, the shaft of which is roughly wrought from iron, and who laughs at the sug-sug offered to him as idle toys.