About three o’clock in the afternoon, five of our party, riding a little in advance of the camels, approached the town of Kúbo, when, being observed by some of the inhabitants, our appearance created a great alarm in the place, the people thinking that a hostile troop was approaching; but, as soon as they beheld our laden camels, their fears ceased, and they gave us quarters. Kúbo is the first place of the district called Tóndi, or el Hajri (meaning, the mountainous or stony district), while Fíliyo and Déshi belong to the district called Kséne; but in a political respect Kúbo belongs now to the province of Dalla, which at present is governed by a son of Módi Bóle; it is two days and a half distant from the town of Hómbori[77], and is a place of some importance. The houses are usually well built, and consist of clay, the greater part of them including a tolerably large courtyard. Our house also was spacious; but, on account of my heavy luggage, I was obliged to take up my quarters in the open segífa, or antechamber, which was greatly exposed to mosquitoes. In front of my quarters there was a handsome square of tolerably regular shape; and towards the north a considerable tank spread out, along which led the path into the fields: for, the whole place being situated in a depression of the ground, all the moisture of the neighbourhood collects here. The village is surrounded by a light stockade of two rows of bushes; and round about the place there are several ponds of water. Turtles are very common here, and the soil swarms with ants. The place was tolerably well provided with corn, and I bought here twenty mudd for one hundred drʿa of Gando cotton strips, equal in reality to nine hundred shells, but the mudd of Kúbo is smaller than that of Tínge, being about two thirds of its size, and in the form of a round dish, while that of Tínge is like a pitcher. The daily allowance of corn for a horse cost about one hundred shells. A very heavy thunder-storm, accompanied with violent rain, broke out in the evening; and the clayey soil of the country which we had to traverse obliged me to stay here the following day. The delay caused me great disappointment, as the spreading of the news of my journey could not fail to increase its difficulties, and the more so as we heard here the unpleasant tidings that the governor of Dalla himself was near, and that most probably we should fall in with him.