Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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The Flags Of The Fellatas Are White, Like The French, And Their Staff
Is A Palm Branch.
They are not borne by men of honour, but by their
slaves.
The sultan had six borne before him; each of the governors
had two. They also dress in white tobes and trousers, as an emblem of
their purity in faith and intention. The most useful personage in the
army, and as brave as any of them, was an old female slave of the
sultan's, a native of Zamfra, five of whose former governors, she
said, she had nursed. She was of a dark copper colour, in dress and
countenance very much like a female esquimaux. She was mounted on a
long-backed bright bay horse, with a scraggy tail, crop-eared, and
the mane, as if the rats had eaten part of it, nor was it very high
in condition. She rode a-straddle, had on a conical straw dish-cover
for a hat, or to shade her face from the sun; a short, dirty, white
bed-gown, a pair of dirty white loose and wide trousers, a pair of
Houssa boots, which are wide, and come over the knee, fastened with a
string round the waist. She had also a whip and spurs. At her
saddle-bow hung about half a dozen gourds filled with water, and a
brass basin to drink out of, and with this she supplied the wounded
and the thirsty.
The army being disbanded, Clapperton obtained permission of the
sultan to proceed to Sockatoo, where he found every thing ready for
his reception, in the house, which he had occupied on his former
visit.
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