ve kissed quite as lustily, had I not deprecated any
further ebullitions of bodily gratitude.

A bath erased not only the dust of travel from my limbs, but seemed to
extract even the memory of its toils from my bones and muscles.
Ahmah-de-Bellah intimated that the Ali-Mami would soon be prepared to
receive me without ceremony. The old gentleman was confined by dropsy
in his lower extremities, and probably found it uncomfortable to
sustain the annoyance of public life except when absolutely necessary.
The burden of my entertainment and glorification, therefore, was cast
on the shoulders of his younger kinsfolk, for which, I confess, I was
proportionally grateful. Accordingly, when I felt perfectly refreshed,
I arose from my matted sofa, and dressing for the first time in more
than a month in a perfectly clean suit, I donned a snowy shirt, a pair
of dashing drills, Parisian pumps, and a Turkish _fez_, tipped with a
copious tassel. Our interpreters were clad in fresh Mandingo dresses
adorned with extra embroidery. My body-servant was ordered to appear
in a cast-off suit of my own; so that, when I gave one my
double-barrelled gun to carry, and armed the others with my pistols,
and a glittering regulation-sword,--designed as a gift for the
Ali-Mami,--I presented a very respectable and picturesque appearance
for a gentleman abroad on his travels in the East. The moment I issued
with my train from the house, a crowd of Fullahs was ready to receive
me with exclamations of chattering surprise; still I was not annoyed,
as elsewhere, by the unfailing concourse that followed my footsteps or
clogged my pathway.

The "palace" of the Ali-Mami of Footha-Yallon, like all African
palaces in this region, was an _adobe_ hovel, surrounded by its
portico shed, and protected by a wall from the intrusion of the common
herd. In front of the dwelling, beneath the shelter of the verandah,
on a fleecy pile of sheepskin mats, reclined the veteran, whose
swollen and naked feet were undergoing a cooling process from the
palm-leaf fans of female slaves. I marched up boldly in front of him
with my military _suite_, and, making a profound _salaam_, was
presented by Ahmah-de-Bellah as his "white brother." The Ali at once
extended both hands, and, grasping mine, drew me beside him on the
sheepskin. Then, looking intently over my face and into the very depth
of my eyes, he asked gently with a smile--"what was my name?"

"AHMAH-DE-BELLAH!" replied I, aft