plaid of a Highlander. The dress of the women consisted almost entirely
of a large cotton cloth of dark colour, fastened round the neck with a
few strings of glass beads.

On the 1st of February Dr Barth approached the important city of Kano.
Almost all the people he met saluted him kindly and cheerfully, only a
few haughty Fellani passing without a salute.

The villages were here scattered about in the most agreeable way, such
as is only practicable in a country in a state of considerable security.
Some of them were surrounded by a bush like the broom, growing to a
height of ten or twelve feet. The doctor and his native companions
passed through a village in which was a large market-place consisting of
several rows of well-built sheds. The market women who attached
themselves to their cavalcade assured them that they would be able to
reach the city that day, but that they ought to arrive at the outer gate
before sunset, as at that time it is shut. The party accordingly pushed
on; but, after entering the gate, it took them forty minutes to reach
the house of Bawu, and, as it was quite dark, they had some trouble in
taking possession of the quarters assigned to them by their host.

Kano had been sounding in the traveller's ears for more than a year; it
had been one of the great objects of his journey. It is the chief
central point of commerce, a great storehouse of information, and was,
Barth considered, the point from whence a journey to more distant
regions might be most successfully attempted. At length, after nearly a
year's exertions, he had reached it. He was, however, greatly
inconvenienced by not being provided with ready cash, instead of which
merchandise had been provided for the expedition, which they had been
assured would not only be safer than money, but would also prove more
advantageous.

Barth had now to pay away a large sum, and all the smaller articles,
which had been carried for barter, having been expended by the heavy
extortions to which they had been subjected on the road to Aire--he was
placed in much difficulty for want of means. He soon found also that
Bawu, Mr Gagliuffi's agent, could not be implicitly relied on.

The currency of the country consists of cowrie shells, or _kurdie_,
which are not, as in regions near the coast, fastened together in
strings of one hundred each, but are separate, and must be counted one
by one. The governors of towns make them up in sacks containing tw