Turbans Are Also Wrapped Round The Head, In Fold After Fold, Till It Appears Swelled On One Side To The Most Unnatural Dimensions, And Only One Half Of The Face Remains Visible.

The fictitious bulk of the lords of Bornou is still further augmented by drawing round them, even in this burning climate, ten or twelve successive robes of cotton or silk, while the whole is covered with numberless charms enclosed in green leathern cases.

Yet under all these incumbrances, they do sometimes mount and take the field, but the idea of such unwieldy hogsheads being of any avail in the day of battle, appeared altogether ridiculous, and it proved accordingly, that on such high occasions, they merely exhibited themselves as ornaments, without making even a show of encountering the enemy.

With about three hundred of this puissant chivalry before and around him, the sultan was himself seated in a sort of cage of cane or wood near the door of his garden, on a seat, which at the distance appeared to be covered with silk or satin, and through the railing looked upon the assembly before him, who formed a kind of semicircle, extending from his seat to nearly where the English were waiting. The courtiers having taken their seats in due form, the embassy was allowed to approach within about pistol shot of the spot where the sultan was sitting, and desired to sit down, when the ugliest black that can be imagined, his chief eunuch, the only person who approached the sultan's seat, asked for the presents. Boo Khaloom's were produced in a large shawl, and were carried unopened to the presence. The glimpse which the English obtained of the sultan, was but a faint one, through the lattice 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 singular manner. During the rains, when its tributary rivers pour in thrice the usual quantity of water, it inundates an extensive tract, from which it retires in the dry season. This space, then overgrown with dense underwood, and with grass double the height of a man, contains a motley assemblage of wild beasts - lions, panthers, hyenas, elephants, and serpents of extraordinary form and bulk. These monsters, while undisturbed in this mighty den, remain tranquil, or war only with each other, but when the lake swells, and its waters rush in, they of necessity seek refuge among the abodes of men, to whom they prove the most dreadful scourge. Not only the cattle but the slaves attending the grain, often fall victims; they even rush in large bodies into the towns. The fields beyond the reach of this annual inundation are very fertile, and land may be had in any quantity, by him who has slaves to cultivate it. This service is performed by females from Musgow, who, aiding their native ugliness, by the insertion of a large piece of silver into the upper lip, which throws it entirely out of shape, are estimated according to the quantity of hard work which they can execute. The processes of agriculture are extremely simple. Their only fine manufacture is that of tobes, or vestments of cotton skilfully woven and beautifully dyed, but still not equal to those of Soudan.

The Bornouese are complete negroes both in form and feature; they are ugly, simple, and good natured, but destitute of all intellectual culture. Only a few of the great fighis or doctors, of whom the sheik was one, can read the Koran. "A great writer" is held in still higher estimation than with us, but his compositions consist only of words written on scraps of paper, to be enclosed in cases, and worn as amulets.

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