This is what actually happened; as we only gave one or two cubits of cloth for objects of little value, no real use could be made of them, so they were sold again to speculators, who bought them at a very low price from their needy owners, and then hid them away. Nothing more was seen of them during our stay, but when we were gone they meant to produce them, and ask extortionate prices for them. Our average prices fluctuated in an extraordinary way. We presently superseded Suleyman, who was too much of a talker, and tried other men as buyers, but we really had not a single coolie who was a good _djula_; at last in despair Baudry was obliged to take the task upon himself, and every morning he went to market to lay in a supply of provisions, buying grain and sheep, milk and butter. He was probably the only buyer who took no perquisites for himself. We got to know personally all the frightful negresses who served us. We talked to them at first by signs, every one using a kind of language of his own. Father Hacquart became very popular amongst them, for he could speak the Arabic employed by the so-called marabouts, and haggle in Songhay with the Koyraberos, whether male or female. Some of the negresses hit upon a very clever dodge, for instead of selling, they gave. They brought presents to the Father, to the Commandant, and to the other officers, such various gifts as calabashes of honey, eggs, milk, poultry, etc., but the principle was always to give a little to receive much. Truth to tell, it is very difficult to refuse to fall in with the idea when the presents are offered in such an insinuating way. [Illustration: A YOUNG GIRL OF SAY.] By these means we started a fine poultry farm, and our chickens lived in the abattis of our enceinte. Their life was not altogether a happy one at Fort Archinard; they became too familiar, and, poor things, this cost them dear. Bluzet and I—this is a merciless age—used to shoot at them from a little bow with arrows made of bits of bamboo pointed with a pin, waging pitiless war on those who came to drink at our well, or who dared to go so far as to disturb us when we had gone to snatch a little rest and coolness in our huts. We made rather an important discovery in connection with this shooting of our poultry. Osman had secretly smuggled some poisoned arrows into our camp, and we drove the point of one of them into the head of a hen which had already been wounded by Bluzet. The result was astonishing, for the next day the hen was cured of her first hurt, and able to run about as if nothing had happened.