[Illustration: Drawn by J. M. Bernatz, from a Sketch by Dr. Barth. M. & N. Hanhart, lith. et impt. BÁRËA. Jany. 9th. 1852.] Thus by very short marches we again approached Bórnu, keeping mostly at a short distance eastward from our former route, and encamped the following day in the midst of another straggling village, the fields of which were especially shaded by fine bíto-trees (_Balanites Ægyptiaca_), the soil being as hard as iron. I had scarcely pitched my tent when Hámed, the son of Ibrahím Wadáy, one of the courtiers with whom I was on friendly terms, sent to me, begging I would pay him a visit; and upon complying with his wish, he introduced into my presence a female slave who had been taken the day before, telling me that I might make a drawing of her: for he knew that I was making strict inquiries after the origin and customs of these tribes, and that I was making occasional sketches. This female slave was certainly worthy of a sketch, as she was one of the most stately women I saw here. But I entertained some suspicion that she was not of Músgu origin, but belonged to the Marghí; for in the whole of the Músgu country I had not observed a single individual of red colour, but all were of the same dirty black, approaching to what the French call _café au lait_, while this woman was of a red complexion. She certainly wore in her under lip the large bone, the national emblem of the Músgu females; but this custom she might have adopted. As for herself, she would neither give me any information with respect to her origin, nor sit still in order to allow me to finish my sketch. She was tall and well-grown, with the exception of the legs, which were rather crooked; and being still a young woman, her breasts had not yet attained that bag-like shape which is so disgusting in the elder females of this country. Her features were only a little disfigured by the bone in the under lip. Her neck was richly ornamented with strings of beads; but these were as little peculiar to her as the cotton cloth round her loins, having been given her by the new master into whose hands she had fallen. The national dress of the Músgu females consists of nothing but a narrow bandage, formed of bast, twisted like a rope, which is fastened between the legs and round the waist like a T bandage.