At another time my friend entered, without any prejudice, into the subject of wine and pork, and he had not much to say against the argument with which I used to defend myself from attacks in this respect; viz. that while we believed religion to concern the soul and the dealings of men towards each other, we thought all that regarded food was left by the Creator to man himself; but, of course, he would have been greatly shocked if he had beheld the scenes exhibited every evening by gin palaces in the midst of the very acme of European civilisation. At other times again, taking out of his small library the Arabic version of Hippocrates, which he valued extremely, he was very anxious for information as to the identity of the plants mentioned by the Arab authors. This volume of Hippocrates had been a present from Captain Clapperton to Sultan Bello of Sókoto, from whom my friend had received it among other articles as an acknowledgment of his learning. I may assert, with full confidence, that those few books taken by the gallant Scotch captain into Central Africa have had a greater effect in reconciling the men of authority in Africa to the character of Europeans, than the most costly present ever made to them; and I hope, therefore, that gifts like these may not be looked upon grudgingly by people who would otherwise object to do anything which might seem to favour Mohammedanism. We staid at the tents till the 14th; the time, on this occasion, hanging less heavily upon my hands than formerly, in consequence of the more cheerful and communicative disposition of my host, and because I was able to gather some little information. The weather, too, was more genial. We had a really warm day on the 13th, and I employed the fine morning in taking a long walk over the several small sandy ridges which intersect this district. There were just at the time very few people about here who might cause me any danger, and I only fell in with the goatherds, who were feeding their flocks by cutting down those branches of the thorny trees which contained young offshoots and leaves. But the Sheikh, having received some private information, suspected that our enemies might make another attempt against my safety; and having requested me to send my servant, ʿAbd-Alláhi, into the town, in the course of the day, to inform my people that we were about to return, he mounted with me, after the moon had risen, and we again entered our old quarters. [Sidenote: February 16th.]