Their upper dress is a Soudanian shirt, over which a long sword hangs from the shoulder. The travelling merchants of this nation carry fire-arms; the others use only the sword, the lance, and the knife, which they carry on their left arm, like the Tibbo, but the handle is finely worked; for they have the art of giving to copper as bright a colour as the English artists, and this art they keep very secret. They carry on a commerce between Soudan, Fezzan, and Gadames. Their caravans give life to Mourzouk, which, without them, is a desert; for they, like the Soudanians, love company, song and music. The Tuarick are not all Mahometans. In the neighbourhood of Soudan and Tombuctoo live the Tagama, who are white, and of the Pagan religion. This must have occasioned the report, to which my attention has been called, by several learned men, that there are white Christians in the neighbourhood of Tombuctoo. I am convinced that the fable arises solely from the expression _Nazary_ (i. e. Christians), which the Arabs and Mahometans use in general for unbelievers. The greatest part of the eastern Tuarick lead a wandering life. A place, for instance, under the government of Hagara consists of about twenty-five or thirty stone houses only; but at the time of their markets (which are said to be very considerable), many hundred men assemble there with their leathern tents. [Illustration] SECTION III. Behind these countries lies Tombuctoo, of which I shall say nothing, as I could not get any well-founded and certain accounts, for there is little intercourse between this region and Fezzan; however, it certainly is the most remarkable and principal town in the interior of Africa. Eastward from Tombuctoo lies Soudan, Haussa, or Asna; the first is the Arabic, the second is the name used in the country, and the last is the Burnuan name. Of these three names I choose the second, as being the most proper, and understood by the Arabs below Soudan, and all the land southward from Ghaden. The Burnuan name means properly only Kano and Kashna, and the country lying eastward from that region Asna, but incorrectly spoken, it comprehends also Tombuctoo. As to what the inhabitants themselves call Haussa, I had, as I think, very certain information. One of them, a Marabut, gave me a drawing of the situation of the different regions bordering on each other, which I here give as I received it. (See the Sketch opposite.) The land within the strong line is Haussa; my black friend had added Asben. These regions are governed by Sultans, of whom those of Kashna and Kano are the most powerful; but they all (either by constraint or policy) pay tribute to Burnu, except Cabi or Nyffé, their districts being at too great a distance. Guber pays, moreover, a tribute to Asben. Zamtara is united with Guber; the Sultan of the latter having taken possession of it, killed the Sultan, and sold all the prisoners he could take.