At the commencement of the _second_ season in the latter part of October, the ardent heat subsides; the air becomes soft and mild; the weather continues perfectly serene; and as the year declines, an unwelcome coolness precedes the rising of the sun. The inhabitants, though consisting of such a multitude of nations that thirty languages are said to be spoken in the empire, are alike in their _Complexion_, which is entirely black, but are not of the Negro cast. In a climate so warm, the chief recommendations of _Dress_ are decency and ornament: among the poorest, therefore, by whom the first only is regarded, a kind of girdle for the waist is sometimes the only covering; but in general a turban, consisting, as in Barbary, of a red woollen cap, surrounded by folds of cotton, together with a loose robe of coloured cotton of a coarser kind, are also worn.[14] The _Grain_ that constitutes the principal object of culture in Bornou is Indian corn, of two different kinds, which are distinguished in the country by the names of the gassób, and the gamphúly. The gassób, which in its general shape resembles the common reed, is of two species; the first grows with a long stalk that bears an ear, which in length is from eight to twelve inches, and contains, in little husks or cavities, from three to five hundred grains, of the size of small pease. The second species, which is common in Tripoli, differs no otherwise from the first than in the shorter size of the ear. The gamphúly is distinguished from the gassób, by the bulk of the stalk, for that of the gamphúly is much thicker, by the number of its ears, for it has several on the same reed, and by the size of the grain, which is considerably larger. This kind of corn is frequently seen in Spain, and is there called Maize. Wheat and barley are not raised in Bornou; but the horse-bean of Europe and the common kidney-bean are cultivated with great assiduity, as they are used for food, both by the slaves and by the cattle.[15] In the culture of these different grains, the hoe alone is employed, as the use of the plough is still unknown to the people. The women divide with the men the labours of their husbandry; for while the latter, with their hoes, open the ground, and form the trenches in straight lines parallel to each other, the women follow and throw in the seed: nor is this the only part which they take in the business of the field; for to them, as soon as the weeds begin to rise on the ridges of the lines in which the grain is sowed, the hoe is constantly transferred. The sowing season commences at the end of the periodical rains of April; and such in that climate is the rapid vegetation, that on the 9th of July the gassób is reaped; but the gamphúly, a grain of slower growth, is seldom cut till the month of August or September.