ttice work of his pavilion,
sufficient, however, to show that his turban was larger than any of
his subjects, and that his face from the nose downwards was
completely covered. A little to the left, and nearly in front of the
sultan, was an extempore declaimer, shouting forth praises of his
master, with his pedigree; near him was one who bore the long wooden
frumfrum, on which ever and anon he blew a blast loud and unmusical.
Nothing could be more ridiculous than the appearance of these people,
squatting under the weight and magnitude of their bellies, while the
thin legs that appeared underneath, but ill accorded with the bulk of
the other parts.

This was all that was ever seen of the sultan of Bornou. The party
then set out for Kouka, passing on their way through Angornou, the
largest city in the kingdom, containing at least thirty thousand
inhabitants.

During his residence at Kouka and Angornou, Major Denham frequently
attended the markets, where besides the proper Bornouese, he saw the
Shouass, an Arab tribe, who are the chief breeders of cattle; the
Kanemboos from the north, with their hair neatly and tastefully
plaited, and the Musgow, a southern clan of the most savage aspect.
A loose robe or shirt of the cotton cloth of the country, often
finely and beautifully dyed, was the universal dress, and high rank
was indicated by six or seven of these, worn one above another.
Ornament was studied chiefly in plaiting the hair, in attaching to it
strings of brass or silver beads, in inserting large pieces of amber
or coral into the nose, the ear, and the lip, and when to these was
added a face, streaming with oil, the Bornouese belle was fully
equipped for conquest. Thus adorned, the wife or daughter of a rich
Shouaa might be seen entering the market in full style, bestriding an
ox, which she managed dexterously, by a leathern thong passed through
the nose, and whose unwieldy bulk she even contrived to torture into
something like capering and curvetting. Angornou is the chief market,
and the crowd there is sometimes immense, amounting to eighty or one
hundred thousand individuals. All the produce of the country is
bought and sold in open market, for shops and warehouses do not enter
into the system of African traffic.

Bornou taken altogether forms an extensive plain, stretching two
hundred miles along the western shore of Lake Tchad, and nearly the
same distance inland. This sea periodically changes its bed in a
si