birds perch
thereon.

We have seen a few nice families amongst the Tuaricks and their slaves,
but these are mostly foreigners. There is the family of the Tripoline
slave; her husband is a pleasant, quiet man, and one of En-Noor's
household; she has a daughter and one cade-lamb. Then there is the
Bornou fighi and his wife. These people are so affable, that they always
have visitors near their little tent. They have also a cade-lamb. Their
tent is a curiosity. It is just large enough for one of them to creep
in--not for two. I suppose the fighi enters at night, and leaves his
wife to sleep at the door.

A detachment of the salt-caravan passed us to-day for Zinder. The whole
force of the salt-caravan this year could not be more than fifteen
hundred. Two divisions were with us of Kailouees, one in advance, each
of five hundred, and the Kilgris' division of five hundred. So much for
the boasted ten thousand camels which were gone this year to bring salt!
From En-Noor one could not possibly get correct statistics, for, being a
thorough Kailouee and a Tuarick, he magnifies everything connected with
his people before strangers, and particularly to us. It was very amusing
to see all the little children warming themselves in the evening at the
fire, or feeding the flames with brushwood, which they easily collected.

CHAPTER XI.

March for Zinder--Enter the City--Reception--Delighted to escape from
the Tuaricks--Letters from Kuka--Hospitable Treatment--Presents for the
Sarkee and others--Visit the Shereef--His Duties--Audience of the
Sarkee--Servility--Double-skulled Slave--Powder and Shot--Portrait of
the Sultan--Commission from Kuka--European Clothes--Family of
En-Noor--Tour of the Town--Scavengers--List of Sultans of Central
Africa--Ancient Haussa--The Market--Money--Conversation
with the Shereef--The Sultan at Home--Mixed Race of
Zinder--Statistics--Personages of the Court.

_Jan. 14th._--We started early, in hopes to reach Zinder in the course
of the morning. Our course of five hours was S. 10 deg. E. from the
encampment. The route from En-Noor's palace in Damerghou is two good
days and a-half. After two hours and a-half we came to huts in a valley,
and a village of thirty or forty houses, called Boban Tabki. In three
quarters of an hour there were villages again. I was pleased to see the
corn-stacks or field-granaries standing in the open country, apart from
all houses or habitations, illustrating the security