A merchant from Kanou (native of Tunis) called to see me. He says the English (Americans) now bring calicoes, powder, dollars, rum, wadâs, guns, and many other things, to Niffee, which afterwards are sent up to Kanou. The slave-trade, therefore, must thrive here; and we get the credit of it, because the ruffians by whom it is carried on speak our language. A great fighi called also to-day to explain any dreams which I might require the interpretation of, bringing with him his Tifsir El-Helam. I told him that last night I dreamt I saw "two persons fall to the ground upon (from?) the boughs of a tree." He searched his book and produced a passage, the pith of which was, that anything which I undertake will not be accomplished. Very agreeable information! I thought we had had bad news enough. The passage made to apply prophetically to me ran literally as follows:-- "And whosoever sees (in dreams) a tree fall, or any thing fall from it,--then will not accomplish itself the thing which is between the man who thus dreams."[18] [18] The unhappy event which soon after this interview occurred, no doubt confirmed the belief of the natives in the powers of this great fighi.--ED. I hired to-day Mohammed Ben Amud Bou Saad, at a salary of ten reals of Fezzan a month. I have heard another version of the plan and cause of the present razzia of the Sultan of Zinder. "Our own correspondents" cannot be more versatile in finding out rumours than the gossips of Zinder. It is now said that the Sultan of Korgum wrote to the Sarkee of Zinder, and asked him if he should make a razzia on or with Maradee. The Sarkee said, "Go." But as soon as the news came that the sultan was gone, this prince, in whom that other put his trust, immediately set out to make a razzia on the country deserted by its sultan. "_Compos!_" cried my Moorish informant; and certainly it was a clever negro trick. It is difficult to know whom to pity or condemn in this iniquitous affair. We may be certain, however, that the poor women and children, the principal sufferers by the razzias, are guiltless in these transactions; and we may, without fear, bestow our sympathies upon them. At the same time it is allowable to admire the profound secrecy with which the Sarkee planned his razzia. Not a soul in Zinder, besides himself, knew where he was going. The general opinion was to Daura, which affords scope for a thousand razzias. The correspondence which I have mentioned between the vassals of Korgum and Zinder illustrates the abominable system on which the Sheikh of Bornou permits his provinces to be governed. Really it is difficult to compare the condition of this extraordinary region to anything but a forest, through which lions and tigers range to devour the weaker and more timid beasts--to which they grant intervals of repose during the digestion of their meals. CHAPTER XVI.