As regards Selga, the district to which the Háusa traders go for their supply of this article, three points are considered essential to the business of the kóla trade; first, that the people of Mósi bring their asses; secondly, that the Tonáwa, or natives of Asanti, bring the nut in sufficient quantities; and thirdly, that the state of the road is such as not to prevent the Háusa people from arriving. If one of these conditions is wanting, the trade is not flourishing. The price of the asses rises with the cheapness of the gúro. The average price of an ass in the market of Selga is 15,000 shells; while in Háusa the general price does not exceed 5000. But the fatáki, or native traders, take only as many asses with them from Háusa as are necessary for transporting their luggage, as the toll, or fitto, levied upon each ass by the petty chiefs on the road, is very considerable. From 5000 to 6000 gúro, or kóla nuts, constitute an ass load. Selga, the market-place for this important article, being, it appears, a most miserable town, where even water is very scarce and can only be purchased at an exorbitant price, the merchants always manage to make their stay here as short as possible, awaiting the proper season in Yendi, a town said to be as large as Timbúktu, or in Kulféla, the great market-place of Mósi; and they are especially obliged to wait in case they arrive at the beginning of the rainy season, there being no kóla nuts before the latter part of the kharíf. The price of this nut in Timbúktu varies from 10 to 100 shells each, and always constitutes a luxury, so that, even on great festivals, alms consisting of this article are distributed by the rich people of the town. So much for three of the most important articles of trade in Timbúktu,—gold, salt, and the kóla nut; the salt trade comprising also the dealings in the native cloth manufactured in Kanó, which forms the general medium of exchange for this article, and about which I have already spoken in detailing the commerce of the great entrepôt of Háusa. I will only add here, that, as Kanó is not a very old place, this want must have been supplied before from some other quarter. It is probable that, as long as Songhay was flourishing, such an import was not needed at all; and we find from several remarks made by El Bekrí, and other ancient geographers, that the art of weaving was very flourishing on the Upper Niger, but especially in the town of Silla, from very ancient times.[19] It is highly interesting to learn from these accounts that even in the eleventh century the cotton cloth was called in this region by the same name which it still bears at the present day, namely, “shigge.”