When these courtiers, to the number of about two hundred and sixty or three hundred, had taken their seats in front of the sultan, we were allowed to approach to within about pistol-shot of the spot where he was sitting, and desired to sit down ourselves, when the ugliest black that can be imagined, his chief eunuch, the only person who approached the sultan’s seat, asked for the presents. Boo-Khaloom’s were produced, inclosed in a large shawl, and were carried unopened to the presence. Our glimpse was but a faint one of the sultan, through the lattice-work of his pavilion, sufficient however to see that his turban was larger than any of his subjects’, and that his face, from the nose downwards, was completely covered. A little to our left, and nearly in front of the sultan, was an extempore declaimer shouting forth praises of his master, with his pedigree; and near him one who bore the long wooden frumfrum, on which he ever and anon blew a blast, loud and unmusical. Nothing could be more ridiculous than the appearance of these people squatting down in their places, tottering under the weight and magnitude of their turbans and their bellies, while the thin legs that appeared underneath but ill accorded with the bulk of the other parts. Immediately after this ceremony we took our departure for Angornou. Angornou is the largest and most populous town of Bornou, and is situated a few miles from the Tchad. This town contains at least thirty thousand inhabitants: it is large and straggling, but not walled. The huts are also larger and more commodious than those of Kouka; some of them having four mud walls, and two chambers. All our friends the merchants, who had accompanied the kafila from Tripoli and Mourzuk, had removed here, after paying their respects to the sheikh at Kouka, this being the fsug, or market town: they visited us immediately on our arrival. The only traders to Soudan are Moors. I found here a native of Loggun, who had just returned from Sennaar; he had been, however, two years on the journey. This man I was extremely anxious to see, but he was purposely moved away; and when, on the following day, I followed him to Kouka, he sent me word, that until he had seen the sheikh he dared not come to the hut.