Kála is the first town of the territory of Logón or Lógone, the boundary of which we had crossed a short time before. Having entered the town through an extremely narrow gate, which scarcely allowed my bare and slender she-camel to pass through, after having taken from her back the whole load, I was struck with the very different aspect it exhibited from the regions we had just left; for while the dwellings testified to a certain degree of civilization, the inhabitants themselves seemed to approach nearer to the pagans than to the Mohammedans. We had scarcely entered the town when we were surrounded by a troop of boys and young lads from seven to twelve years of age, tall and well built, and in a state of entire nudity, a thing hardly ever seen in the country of Bórnu, even with slaves. The type of their features, however, was very different from the general type observed in the Bórnu people, and seemed to indicate more intelligence and cunning. I have already observed, in the country of Músgu, how the state of the dwellings contrasts with the apparel, or rather the want of apparel, of the people themselves; but here it seemed more remarkable, for the dwellings in general did not consist of round conical huts, but of spacious oblong houses of clay, of considerable elevation. I was quartered in one of these structures, but found it rather close, and full of dust. The town presented an appearance of the utmost decay, only a few dwellings remaining in the centre of it; and the only remarkable objects were two palm-trees, one of which I had already observed from without: and I now assured myself that they were not date-trees, but belonged to the fan-shaped group of palms. But they were not bifurcated, and seemed not to belong to the _Cucifera Thebaïca_, nor were they identical with the deléb-palm. At any rate they were the tallest specimens which I ever remember to have seen of the fan-shaped tribe, their height appearing more extraordinary on account of the small tuft of leaves, which was confined to the very top. The town itself presenting no very interesting features, I went out in the afternoon, and lay down for an hour or two, in the shade of one of those beautiful fig-trees which, fed by a large and deep swamp, surround the town on all sides; but, the more pleasant was my day’s repose, the more disagreeable was my night’s rest, for, owing to these stagnant pools, the town is full of mosquitoes, and neither I myself nor any of my companions were able to get any sleep the whole of the ensuing night.