r-headed staves, hardened
by fire. If the first fence was leaped by assailants, they met a cruel
reception from those impaling sentinels. Three gates afforded
admission to different sections of the town, but the passage through
them consisted of zig-zags, with loopholes cut judiciously in the
angles, so as to command every point of access to the narrow streets
of the suburbs.

The parting between Mohamedoo and myself was friendly in the extreme.
Provisions for four days were distributed by the prince to the
caravan, and he promised that my return should be welcomed by an
abundant supply of slaves.

CHAPTER XXII.

As our caravan approached the Fullah country, and got into the higher
lands, where the air was invigorating, I found its pace improved so
much that we often exceeded twenty miles in our daily journey. The
next important place we were to approach was Jallica. For three days,
our path coasted the southern edge of a mountain range, whose
declivities and valleys were filled with rivers, brooks, and
streamlets, affording abundant irrigation to fields teeming with
vegetable wealth. The population was dense. Frequent caravans, with
cattle and slaves, passed us on their way to various marts. Our
supplies of food were plentiful. A leaf of tobacco purchased a fowl; a
charge of powder obtained a basin of milk, or a dozen of eggs; and a
large sheep cost only six cents, or a quart of salt.

Five days after quitting Tamisso, our approach to Jallica was
announced; and here, as at our last resting-place, it was deemed
proper to halt half a day for notice and ablution before entering a
city, whose chief--SUPHIANA--was a kinsman of Ali-Ninpha.

The distance from our encampment to the town was about three miles;
but an hour had hardly elapsed after our arrival, when the deep boom
of the war-drum gave token that our message had been received with
welcome. I was prepared, in some measure, for a display of no ordinary
character at Jallica, because my Mandingo friend, Ali-Ninpha,
inhabited the town in his youth, and had occupied a position which
gave importance to his name throughout Soolimana. The worthy fellow
had been absent many years from Jallica, and wept like a child when he
heard the sound of the war-drum. Its discordant beat had the same
effect on the savage that the sound of their village bells has on the
spirit of returning wanderers in civilized lands. When the rattle of
the drum was over, he told me that f