A small kingdom, with Sansanding as capital, was placed under Mademba; he had in his service a certain number of _sofas_, or captive Amadu warriors, who had surrendered to the French and to the natives. Our postmaster-general soon became the _Fama Mademba_, the word _fama_ signifying a chief or king among the natives of Bambara. Mademba gathered a court about him, showing a very clear sense of the right policy to pursue. When with us his manners and tastes were quite civilized, but he knew that to get an influence over his new subjects he must adopt the customs of their chiefs. He began by building himself a palace, which consists of a vast rectangular enceinte, with a door embellished with rough ornaments in clay. In the first vestibule, or _bolo_, are the guards, or _dalasiguis_, armed with muskets. This porch gives access to a series of courts and other _bolos_, where of an evening bellow the cattle and bleat the sheep belonging to the chief. A last door, guarded or rather watched over by some fifteen children, gives access to the favourite apartment of the _Fama_. Why should children be employed? Because they are the only people who can be depended on to tell the truth, and if they notice anything unusual they are very sure, sooner or later, to tell what they have seen. For the same reason, perhaps, and also on æsthetic grounds, the _Fama_ is waited on by women only, most of whom are the daughters of blacksmiths or griots, specially attached to the chief, their name, _Korosiguis_, meaning, “those who sit beside.” Moreover, Mademba showed great acumen in his choice of servants, and I never saw so many pretty girls anywhere else in the Sudan. Behind the royal apartments, and completely surrounding the vast enclosure, are the huts of Mademba’s wives; but there begins the private life of the chief, and I can’t introduce you to that, for the simple reason that I have never seen anything of it myself. Surrounded by his male and female griots, wearing a grand green _burnous_, on which gleamed the Cross of the Legion of Honour, the reward of his courage in the service of France, Mademba came to the banks of the river to welcome us. Shouts and acclamations of delight and sympathy with us greeted us as we landed, and if we had not known what all the fuss meant, we might have mistaken it for a declaration of war. We went home with the _Fama_, and there, taking off his _burnous_, the black chief disappeared, to be replaced by our old friend Mademba, cultivated, refined, a charming talker, quite up-to-date in all that was going on in Europe, the man whom all Frenchmen who have been in the Sudan know and appreciate. He did the honours of an excellent, almost European meal, and we drank a glass of champagne together, in spite of his being a good Mussulman, for he has none of the stupid fanaticism of his fellow believers.