t live with me, and has run away to her
father. I will give you three bullocks if you will fetch her back and
make her live with me!" The Sultan smiled, and observed only, "Hem, your
wife won't live with you! Well, what can I do?" Another man came forward
and cried, "O Sultan! I am a thief, but you must pardon me. I stole this
mat because I was a poor man" (holding up the mat). "I restore the mat."
His highness observed, "Leave it; I will see what can be done." A
collection of stolen articles was restored also by another person. Then
came a man more bold, and brought a present from a neighbouring village,
consisting of two large bowls of ghaseb and a bundle of wood. The man
made a great clamour, holding up the present. His highness looked at
him, and said, "Good, good; put them down."

I am told his highness is much feared by all the people of the
provinces. He has the character of being impartial. But the way in which
he carries out capital punishment is truly terrible, and beyond
conception barbarous. He neither hangs nor beheads. This mode of
punishment is too mild for him. No; he actually cuts open the chest, and
rips out the heart! or else hangs up people by the heels, and so
inflicts upon them a lingering death. I am astonished that the Sheikh of
Bornou permits such barbarity, but imagine that the Sheikh is still
afraid of his vassal, and shrinks from endeavouring to deprive him of
this awful power. Here, then, we have a specimen of the negro character,
with all its contradictions; soft and effeminate in its ordinary moods;
cheerful, and pleasant, and simple, to appearance; but capable of
acting, as it were without transition, the most terrible deeds of
atrocity. Say what you will of the barbarism of the Tuaricks, such a
mode of inflicting capital punishment is unknown amongst them. I took
leave of his highness, promising to come again another day and bring
other things.

This evening we were disturbed by the cries of the hyaena; a large one
had come down upon the calves belonging to a drove of bullocks, and
carried off one as big as itself. The brute seizes its prey by the
throat, and so prevents the animal from giving intelligence to its
pursuers. The place of execution is near my house, and when the Sultan
executes any criminal the body is left unburied. At such times, troops
of hyaenas, old and young, come down in the night, from the rocks and
open country, and devour the body in a few minutes. The jackal doe