court, with a considerable number of learned and intelligent men gathering round their sovereign, and a priest writing down the history of the glorious achievements of his master, and thus securing them from oblivion. Pity that he was not aware that his work might fall into the hands of people from quite another part of the world, and of so different a stage of civilization, language, and learning! else he would certainly not have failed to have given to posterity a more distinct clue to the chronology of the history of his native country. [Illustration] It is remarkable that the area of the town, although thickly overgrown with rank grass, is quite bare of trees, while the wall is closely hemmed in by a dense forest; and when I entered the ruins, I found them to be the haunt of a couple of tall ostriches, the only present possessors of this once animated ground: but on the south-west corner, at some distance from the wall, there was a small hamlet. The way in which the komádugu, assisted probably by artificial means, spreads over this whole region is very remarkable. The passage of the country at the present season of the year, covered as it is with the thickest forest, was extremely difficult, and we had to make a very large circuit in order to reach the village of Zéngirí, where the river could be most easily crossed. I myself went, on this occasion, as far south-west as Zaraima, a village lying on a steep bank near a very strong bend or elbow of the river, which, a little above, seems to be formed by the two principal branches, the one coming from the country of Bedde, and the other more from the south. But, notwithstanding the great circuit we made, we had to ford several very extensive backwaters stretching out, in the deeper parts of the valley, amidst a thick belt of the rankest vegetation, before we reached the real channel, which wound along in a meandering course inclosed between sandy banks of about twenty-five feet in elevation, and, with its rich vegetation, presenting a very interesting spectacle. The forest in this part is full of tétel, or _Antilope oryx_, and of the large antilope called “kargum.” The few inhabitants of this district, although they do not cultivate a great deal of corn, cannot suffer much from famine, so rich is the supply of the forest as well as of the water. Our evening’s repast, after we had encamped near Zéngirí, was seasoned by some excellent fish from the river. However, I must observe here that the Kanúri in general are not such good hunters as the Háusa people, of whom a considerable proportion live by hunting, forming numerous parties or hunting clubs, who on certain days go out into the forest. [Sidenote: Friday, December 3rd.]