Colonel Morland and his staff took up quarters in the Emir’s Palace, and so readily was the new order of things accepted by the inhabitants that a few hours later British officers were strolling about the streets, unattended, sightseeing. The very next day the market resumed most of its activities, and within three days from the entry was again in full swing, with a notable omission: the slave section had disappeared. The Headmen of the people were invited by Sir Frederick Lugard to elect the new Emir. Selection fell on the Wombai, the deposed Emir’s brother, who had counselled him to submit to the British. He is on the throne to-day. [Illustration: SIR FREDERICK LUGARD, D.S.O. First Governor of Northern Nigeria and now Governor-General of Nigerias Southern and Northern. [_Photo by Elliott & Fry._] CHAPTER XI KANO CITY—(_continued_) Houses and rents—From 1s. 6d. to £5 a year—Mud mansions—No. 1 Kano—When to build and repair—Advice on building—A contract and a surprise. The residential parts of Kano are made up of irregular square mud houses, most of them with slightly domed flat roofs. That is the prevailing form of architecture. There are some round ones having thatched tops and a few made altogether from that material. They belong to the poor. The style is not favoured by reason of the danger from fire. The Emir allows the more flimsy product on an understanding that it be replaced by mud as soon as the worldly prospects of the dwellers warrant the improvement. There is no private landlordism—or rather, according to the law, there is supposed to be none—in Kano. The State, in the person of the Emir, owns the ground. It is not his individually; it belongs to the people; he regulates occupation. A ground rent is fixed according to the space covered by the compound—which may contain several buildings—at the fraction of a penny per square foot annually. This does not work out at an extravagant sum according to our ideas. You can, as a native of Northern Nigeria—none others are allowed to be occupiers—obtain a house if it be vacant or ground to build one at a rental of 1s. 6d. a year. These dwellings are not exactly palatial mansions. The scale of rents rises by a few pence to 3s. 6d., at which quite a desirable residence may be secured. My very good friend Adamu Ch’Kardi, a man greatly respected by all classes, from the Emir to the beggars in the streets, pays 3s. 6d. a year, and as 34 persons live in his house and its annexe, and as Adamu is not a person to be content with piggish surroundings, the house will be estimated as pretty large. Those who desire to keep up greater style have full opportunity. Rents go as high as £1 a year or even £2, £3, £4, or £5, which is the scale for a palace with a large surrounding garden. The Prime Minister occupies a house of the kind in the corresponding Belgrave Square of Kano.