Kano Province under the British Administration includes a number of independent Emirates which we found existing and which we have maintained, viz.: Kano, Katsina, Katagum, Daura, Kazaure and Gummel. The total area of the Province is 28,600 square miles, _i.e._ almost the size of Scotland, and its population 2,600,000, or what that of Scotland was in the middle of last century. The present Emir, Abbas, a reserved and very dark Fulani, with refined regular features and long aristocratic hands, is a fine figure of a man. The description of a visit to him may serve to convey some idea of the ceremonious etiquette observed at the courts of the Mohammedan Emirs (Kano being typical of all the great Emirates, with the exception of Sokoto where formalities are even more elaborate), besides throwing light upon several questions of interest and moment connected with the problems of British administration. To depict the Emir’s residence as a compound built of clay is, while accurate, to give but an inadequate idea of the imposing character of these solid structures, the best of which are, with supervision, capable of resisting for centuries the action of the weather. I am probably understating the case when I say that the tall and bulky wall—some fifteen feet in thickness—surrounding the residence encloses five acres. Dismounting at the principal entrance, we are escorted through the gateway by several functionaries and emerge into a vast enclosure open to the sky. At its extremity, facing us, is an inner wall and another deep embrasured gateway leading to the state apartments. On our right stands the Emir’s private mosque, a building of considerable proportions but smaller, of course, than the public mosque outside the walls. Here and there a few picturesque figures are noticeable. For, perhaps, a minute we wait. Then a blare of trumpets resounds, and through the inner gateway emerges a brilliant gathering which advances slowly towards us, the Emir in the midst. Within a dozen yards or so it halts, and the Emir, separating himself from the throng, greets us with hand outstretched—the only African in the Emirate to whom etiquette allows this particular form of salutation with the White man. Towering above most of the councillors, officers of state and heads of leading families by whom he is accompanied, and bearing himself with great dignity, the Emir murmurs some words of welcome. He is dressed entirely in costly white robes and turban; his feet are encased in ostrich-feather sandals, a footgear introduced in the sixteenth century by Mohamma Rimfa, the twentieth Emir of Kano, justly revered for a reign full of years and usefulness, and he carries the silver-mounted staff of office presented to all the ruling Emirs by Sir Frederick Lugard after the British occupation. He invites us to follow him and leads the way in silence to his apartments, his courtiers closing round us as we proceed. In the same