The Arabs from North and from Central Africa form a very small proportion of the crowds in Kano market. How are these crowds to be described? Not at all, unless at tabulated length. Buyers and sellers come in from districts 100 miles away and intermediately. There are markets and markets, near and far, large and small, and Kano is the hub, the receiving and the distributing centre of them all. Sokoto, Katsina, and their surrounding districts send horses and cattle. Villages near weave cloth, plait straw into mats, basins and a dozen other forms, and place the article in Kano market. Kano itself and a wide radius around supply hides and skins, and Kano tans and dyes them. It is the combined Lancashire and London of West Central Africa; manufactures and the centre of exchange. But there are no large factories. Tanning, dyeing, weaving, the basket industry, leather work, all and much else are done by individual families or by men employing half-a-dozen employees. Do not conclude that Kano market is only for big transactions. You can buy anything there, from flocks and herds to native-grown cotton, ginned or unginned, or less than a handful of ground-nuts—known in English fruit shops as monkey-nuts—for a few cowries, of which 280 are the local rate of exchange for a penny. Arts and crafts flourish in Kano market. Yes, arts and crafts essentially. Note the skill of the fancy leather worker: satchels of many kinds; long, flat purses wherein a double compartment slips perpendicularly into another—a favourite form of keeping money or documents—slippers and covered sandals of brightly-dyed leather carrying devices in still brighter contrast; cushion covers looking as though a dozen chess-boards had been interwoven; large and small bags; whips and many other articles fancily formed of leather, and strips of it decorate spurs and anything where art or ornament can be used with effect. Nothing is more noticeable than the riding boots reaching above the knees and bearing in front brilliant figuring fit for a Claude Duval. There is the wood carver, handling a small, crude blade and fashioning on calabashes, large and small, curves and lines and flowers, symmetrically shaped and arranged, and selling the whole thing, according to the size of the vessel, for 1d., 2d., 3d., or 4d. In the blacksmith’s shop only implements of utility are being produced, principally the hoe, which, used by hand, takes the place of our plough in forming a furrow for planting. It consists of a short handle—about 18 to 24 inches—and a small shovel blade set at right angle at the end.