[Footnote 29: The feudal law exists here in full force; and a man unwilling to serve, provides one or more substitutes according to his means.] [Footnote 30: Birnie means Medina, the capital, in the Bornou language.] [Footnote 31: From these ruins the sheikh procures the greater part of the nitre used in preparing his gunpowder.] [Footnote 32: There are two species of the bamboo, one called Kayay, and the other Gummary.] [Footnote 33: This fighi was a most extraordinary person, and his fame for knowledge and charm-writing was by some thought to exceed that of the sheikh himself, of whom he was jealous to a degree. He had passed years amongst the Kerdies to the south, and knew “· · · · · · · · · · · · · The dreadful art To taint with deadly drugs the barbed dart.” He was now, however, about to be humbled.] CHAPTER V. RAINY SEASON AT KOUKA. The sheikh gave us an interview in his garden this afternoon: the lemon and fig trees exhibited some fruit, the appearance of which was gratifying. Knowing we had news from England, he asked several questions about the Morea, where the Greeks and Turks had been fighting. He had read some account of the former splendour of that country, and he was pleased with some of the corroborations we gave him of their truth. He again started the subject of the shape of the globe, and wished to be acquainted with the method in which its shape had been ascertained: some of his books, he said, made it square. A phosphorus box, which had been brought him from Tripoli, and of which he knew not the use, was now produced, and on the match coming out lighted, himself and all the spectators were delighted beyond measure. I was this morning going on a hunting excursion to the Tchad with some Shouaas of Beni Hassan, but as it was Sunday I postponed my sport: they however went, and brought back a very young elephant, not more than two feet and a half high, and yet so powerful, that three men were obliged to hold him for the purpose of pouring a little milk down his throat. Achmet-ben-Sheneen, an Arab of Augela, a wretched sufferer, came constantly to the Doctor for medicine; and on seeing him we could not refrain from blessing God’s providence in our misery, for sparing us from such afflictions as had fallen upon him. Nearly two years before, in an action with La Sala Shouaas, whom the sheikh conquered, this poor fellow had received three dreadful wounds; one in the head, which had left a deep scar; another in the arm, which, as the spear was poisoned, had never healed, but was still an open wound, extending several inches from the elbow downwards; and in the third, the spear had gone in at his mouth as he lay on the ground, and carrying away part of the jaw and teeth, had penetrated quite through his cheek. A short time after his return from the expedition, he was seized with what the Doctor called the Greek leprosy, covering great part of his