Having then kept along the fáddama as far as the village of Tanna, we left our former route, for a more northerly direction, and after a march of five miles reached the miserable remains of a hamlet called Jídder, which the preceding year had been ransacked and entirely destroyed by the Jermábe, as the inhabitants of Zerma, or Zabérma, are called by the Fúlbe. But the fine crops around testified to the natural fertility of the soil. In this village, which has a well surrounded by dúm-palms, it had been our intention to halt; but through a ridiculous misunderstanding of my Méjebrí companion, who never could shorten the march sufficiently, but who this time was punished for his troublesome conduct, we continued on, and leaving the village of Hari-bango at some distance on our right, did not reach another hamlet till after a march of about five miles more. This place, which is called Mínge, had been likewise ransacked by the enemy in the turbulent state of the country, and exhibited a most miserable appearance; but here also there was a good deal of cultivation, and I was not a little astonished at finding, in such a desolate place, a man who was retailing meat in his hut, but on further inquiry, it proved to be the flesh of a sick animal, a few head of cattle having remained in the possession of the inhabitants. In order to avoid sleeping in the dirty huts, I had pitched my tent on the grassy ground, but was so much persecuted by a species of hairy ant, such as I had not observed before, that I obtained almost less sleep than the preceding night on the banks of the Niger, where mosquitoes had swarmed. [Sidenote: Friday, August 4th.] This day brought me to Támkala; my camels pursuing a shorter and I a more circuitous route, but both arriving at the same time at the gate of this town. It had been my intention, from the beginning, to visit this place; but the turbulent state of the country had induced me the year before to follow a more direct road, and I did not learn until now, that on that occasion Ábú el Hassan, as soon as he heard of my approach, had sent four horsemen to Gárbo, in order to conduct me to his presence; but they did not arrive till after I had left that place. The town of Támkala, which gives great celebrity to this region, had suffered considerably during the revolution of Zabérma; and if the bulky crops of native corn (which were just ripe) had not hid the greater part of the town from view, it would most probably have presented even a more dilapidated appearance; for not only was the wall which surrounded the place in a great state of decay; but even the house of the governor himself was reduced almost to a heap of ruins. It was rather remarkable that, as I approached the building, a female slave, of rather light yellowish colour, saluted me, the white man, in a familiar manner, as if I had been a countryman and co-religionist of hers. She belonged, I think, to a tribe to the south of Ádamáwa.