impressive silence we pass through the inner gateway and find ourselves in a broad passage flanked on either side by lofty audience chambers whose dimensions it is difficult to gauge in the semi-obscurity which reigns within them. At the end of the passage is yet another gateway. Thenceforth we proceed alone with the Emir and the _Waziri_ or Vizier—the present holder of that office being a man of great independence and strength of character, whose fearless candour and ripe judgment have been of inestimable service in assisting successive Residents to understand the many complex problems of native administration. Crossing a courtyard we enter the outer room of the Emir’s private apartments. And here for an hour we discuss many things, chairs being provided for us while the Emir and Waziri, in accordance with the etiquette of the country, sit cross-legged before us. A word as to the architecture and appearance of the room, which, as we were subsequently to ascertain, is roughly similar to the audience chambers we have left behind. It is some twenty to twenty-five feet in height, with an arched roof supported by wooden beams on the cantilever principle; both beams and roof are, like the floor, stained a deep black with the varnish obtained from the shell of the locust bean; a few plates of European manufacture are let into the supporting rafters; the walls, constructed of the usual sun-baked clay mingled with other substances, have a glittering appearance due to the admixture of mica; two doors, an outward and an inward one, of massive timber bound with iron bars affixed by native nails ornamented with large circular brass heads, and a divan of rugs and shawls complete a picture which suggests a certain austere simplicity. [Illustration: INSIDE KANO CITY.]