his muscles into action, and then went round the ring showing
his arms to the bystanders and exclaiming: "I am a hyaena! I am a Hon!
I am able to kill all that oppose me!" To which the spectators replied,
"The blessing of God be upon thee!--Thou art a hyaena: thou art a lion."

A number of fighters then came forward, when they were next ranged in
pairs. If they happened to be friends, they laid their left breast
together twice, and exclaimed: "We are lions! we are friends!" Then one
left the ring, and another was brought forward. If the two did not
recognise one another as friends, the combat immediately commenced.
They parried with the left hand open, and struck as opportunity offered
with the right, generally aiming at the pit of the stomach and under the
ribs. Occasionally they closed with one another, when one seized the
other's head under his arm and beat it with his fist, at the same time
striking with the knee between his antagonist's thighs. Indeed, much
the same brutality was exhibited as in English prize-fights.
Clapperton, hearing that they sometimes gouged out each other's eyes,
and that such combats seldom terminated without one or more being
killed, having satisfied his curiosity, ordered the battle to cease, and
gave the promised reward.

The custom in this place is to bury the people in their own houses,
which are occupied as usual by the poorer classes; but when a great man
is buried, the house is for ever after abandoned. A corpse being
prepared for interment, the first chapter of the Koran is read over it.
The funeral takes place the same day. The bodies of slaves are dragged
out of the town and left a prey to vultures and wild beasts in most
places; but in Kano they are thrown into the morass or nearest pool of
water.

On the 22nd of February, Clapperton commenced his journey towards
Sackatoo, in company with an Arab merchant, Mahomet Jolly, having left
his Jew servant, Jacob, to return in case of his death, with his effects
to Bornou.

At the towns where he stopped he was generally taken for a _fighi_, or
teacher, and was pestered to write out charms. One day his washerwoman
insisted on being paid with a charm in writing, that would induce people
to buy earthenware of her.

After travelling for some days he was met by an escort of one hundred
and fifty horsemen with drums and trumpets, sent by Sultan Bello to
conduct him to his capital, which he reached on the 16th of March. He,
as