After all the people were gone, I myself could not think of passing another night in this desolate place, which is not only exposed to the attacks of men, but even to those of wild beasts. Even the preceding night the hyenas had attacked several people, and had almost succeeded in carrying off a boy, besides severely lacerating one man, who was obliged to return home without being able to accompany the army. An hour, therefore, after the sultan had left his encampment, we ourselves were on our road to Wurno, the common residence of ʿAlíyu, where I had been desired to take up my quarters in the house of the ghaladíma; but I never made a more disagreeable journey, short as it was, the provisions which the sultan had given me encumbering us greatly, so that at length we were obliged to give away the heifer as a present to the inhabitants of the village of Gáwasú. It thus happened that we did not reach our quarters till late in the evening; and we had a great deal of trouble in taking possession of them in the dark, having been detained a long time at the gateway, which itself was wide and spacious, but which was obstructed by a wooden door, while there was no open square at all inside the gate, nor even a straight road leading up from thence into the town, the road immediately dividing and winding close along the wall. [Footnote 34: See the description which Clapperton gives of the manner in which these cakes are prepared. (Denham and Clapperton’s Travels, ii. p. 125.)] [Footnote 35: The wells here were eight fathoms.] [Footnote 36: See Vol. I. p. 391.] [Footnote 37: Clapperton, Second Expedition, p. 150.] [Footnote 38: For further details on this subject, see Appendix I.; and for an outline of the history of Zánfara, see the Chronological Tables.] [Footnote 39: It was extensively cultivated in this province at the beginning of the sixteenth century. (Leo Africanus, lib. vii. c. 13.)] [Footnote 40: I may as well add, that the richly-mounted pistols which chiefly aided me in obtaining the friendship of this powerful chief, as well as another pair which I afterwards gave to Khalílu the ruler of Gando, and also several other things, were paid for with my own money, which was forwarded to Tripoli by my family at the suggestion of the Chevalier Bunsen, as well as two harmonica, one of which I gave to ʿAlíyu, and the other to the sheikh el Bakáy.] CHAP. LVII. RESIDENCE IN WURNO. I shall preface the particulars of my residence in Wurno with a short account of the growth of the power of the Fúlbe or Féllani in this quarter, and of the present condition of the empire of Sókoto.