enty
thousand each. Private individuals will not receive them without
counting them out; those even who made but a few small purchases had to
count out five hundred thousand shells.

The doctor had now to borrow two thousand _kurdie_, which did not amount
to the value of a dollar.

He was forbidden to leave his quarters until he had seen the governor,
and he was thus kept within them for several days, till he was attacked
by fever. At length, on the 18th of February, he received a summons to
attend the great man.

Although the distances in Kano are less than those of London, they are
very great, and the ceremonies to be gone through are almost as tedious
as those of any European court.

Arousing himself, and putting on his warm Tunisian dress, wearing over
it a white _tobe_ and a white bournous, he mounted his poor black nag
and followed his advocates, Bawu Elaiji and Sidi-Ali, the two latter of
whom showed him the most disinterested friendship. It was a fine
morning: before him lay the whole scenery of the town, in its great
variety of clay houses, huts, sheds, green open places affording pasture
for oxen, horses, camels, donkeys, and goats, in motley confusion, with
many beautiful specimens of the vegetable kingdom--the slender
date-palm, the spreading _alleluba_, and the majestic silk-cotton tree--
the people in all varieties of costume, from the almost naked slave up
to the most gaudily-dressed Arab, all formed a most animating and
exciting scene.

Passing through the market-place, they entered the quarters of the
ruling race--the Fulbe or Fellani, where conical huts of thatched work
and the gonda-tree are prevalent.

They first proceeded to the house of the _gadado_, the lord of the
treasury. It was an interesting specimen of the domestic arrangements
of the Fulbe, who do not disown their original character of nomadic
cattle-breeders. Its court-yard, though in the middle of the town,
looked like a farm-yard, and could not be commended for its cleanliness.

The treasurer having approved of the presents and appropriated to
himself a large gilt cup, the doctor and his companions were conducted
to the audience-hall. It was very handsome, and even stately for this
country. The rafters of the elevated ceiling were concealed by two
lofty arches of clay, very neatly polished and ornamented. At the
bottom of the apartment were two spacious and highly-decorated niches,
in one of which the governor was reposi