this country, and most of the domestic animals, like
horses, sheep, dogs, cats, &c. are diminutive when compared to those of
Europe. The bullocks, however, are of a good size, with branching horns.
The sheep have no wool, or rather, the wool takes the appearance and
substance of hair, like that of a dog; and their tails, too, are like
those of dogs; but, indeed, the Soudan sheep are well known. No fruit or
vegetables are found in these villages: not even onions, common in most
places. The birds have all a strange appearance. I am no naturalist, and
wonder when I should examine. That filthy species of vulture, the
scavenger of Zinder, is seen in twos and threes. The woods abound in
turtle-doves. I gave the Kashalla a ring for himself and his female
slave, or wife, as it may be. Very few men of this sort have wives: all
their women are slaves. He was greatly pleased with the present.

_10th._--My thermometer remains behind with the baggage at Zinder,
expected to-day. Here we wait for it, and the rest of the caravan. I
oiled myself well last night with olive oil, and feel much better this
morning. During a walk through the villages, I observed that two-thirds
of the male population, as in Zinder, are quite idle, lounging about, or
stretched at their full length upon the dust of the ground. A third find
something to do, either in working on cotton, or making matting, or in
the gardens, where tobacco, pepper, cotton, and indigo are grown. These
are the staple products of the gardens in this part of Africa. The women
have always something to occupy their time, suckling their children,
fetching water, cooking, or else picking cotton. All the males, I
imagine, at some seasons of the year, find occupation, when the ghaseb
is sown and when reaped. But, nevertheless, what powerfully solicits the
observation of the European in looking into these villages is the
downright livelong idleness of the male population.

We begin, at length, to regard this region merely as the nursery-ground
of slavery--of the system which takes away the idlers to perform their
share of the curse pronounced on Adam, that in the sweat of his brow he
should eat and earn his bread. Again it is to be observed, that the
wants of these people are very few: they live on ghaseb and milk, eating
little meat; these come to them almost without labour. The ground is
tilled by burning the stubble of the previous year, or by burning the
trees on new land. The seed is t