Several Women, With Little Wooden Figures Of Children On Their Heads, Passed Them In The Course Of The Morning; They Were Mothers, Who, Having Lost A Child, Carry These Rude Imitations Of Them About Their Persons For An Indefinite Time, As A Symbol Of Mourning.

Not one of them could be induced to part with one of these little affectionate memorials.

They entered Egga, which is a very large town, in the early part of the afternoon. On their arrival, they were introduced into the house occupied by Captain Clapperton on his last journey, in the yard of which, repose the remains of an Englishman, named Dawson, who died here of a fever when that officer passed through the country. Both the hut and yard were soon tilled with people, and were in a state of filth, which baffles all description. They could not by any means rid themselves of sheep, goats, and fowls, with their train; in spite of all their attempts to remove them, they were determined to be their companions, and this grievance, added to the tongues of a hundred visitors, made their situation all but intolerable.

Egga is the principal market town in this part of Africa, and is attended by buyers and sellers for many miles round. Women here are the chief, if not the only traders, most of them are of graceful and prepossessing exterior, and they all practise those petty tricks and artifices in their dealings, with which the market women of more civilized countries are not unacquainted.

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