Issa’s own home was almost European in size and style. It had a regular gabled roof, the first I had seen properly constructed, and there were four good rooms inside. In that which served as an entrance-hall, Issa showed me a folding-table and a canteen marked S, both presents from the German expedition. The information he gave me without any pressing about that expedition was of the highest importance, for, according to him, all that Dr. Grunner went to Gando for was to ask the Emir to direct the merchants of caravans who left districts under his command to go to Togoland. It will readily be seen how very different the purely commercial aim of this expedition was to that attributed to it, the establishment of a protectorate in Gando. The people of Girris have polite and gentle manners. Neither the men, the women, nor the children showed any of the unreasonable terror of white men usual amongst negroes, and so painful to Europeans, accustomed to countries where there is nothing of the kind. At daybreak the next morning the children of the place came with the little spades used in the district, to clear a great space of grass near to our anchorage, in preparation for the chief’s visit to us. On our side we got ready for his reception by pitching the big tent and hoisting our flag beside it. I also made the coolies rig themselves out in their best clothes. At eight o’clock a deafening noise announced the approach of the chief, and the procession very soon came in sight. It was headed by a number of children armed with bows and arrows, followed by mounted men with tambourines, which the riders struck perpetually with little bent rods. At last came his Majesty himself, surrounded by a number of his wives, horrible-looking women, whose style I have already described, whilst beside him was his prime minister, if I may use such an expression, or, to give the Haussa term, his _ghaladima_, whose chief occupation in the palace was to shampoo his master’s feet. Behind came crowds of men putting out all the strength of their lungs as they blew large horns, not unlike those used in Europe by the drivers of stage coaches, making a perfectly deafening din. These horns or trumpets, which must have been much the same as those that brought down the walls of Jericho, had caused the awful noise we had been disturbed by in the early morning. The orchestra was completed by a number of heterogeneous instruments, the description of which would require a whole chapter, and the row they made really included, I do believe, every possible sound which could be produced by beating, clapping, and squeezing.