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                 CHAP. XXVIL

                   BORNU PROPER.



The ghaladima had promised to send  me   Saturday

a  horseman last evening, as I  wanted to  Marcli 22nd-

start early in  the morning; but as  we neither  saw

nor heard anything of him the whole night, I thought

it  better not to lose any more time, but to rely upon

my  own resources,  and  accordingly left the town

quietly by the northern  gate, while the people, after

last  night's merriment, were still buried in sleep.

   Following the great  road, we kept on through a

light forest,  at times interrupted by  a little culti¬

vation.  We met several  parties—first of a warlike

character,  armed,  horse and  foot,  then  a motley

band of natron-traders with camels, bulls, horses  and

asses, all laden with this valuable article.   Emerging

at length from the forest, we came upon  a wide extent

of cultivated  land with  a sandy soil, with hardly a

single tree at present, and, the labours of the field not

having yet commenced, still covered with the kawo or

Asclepias, the  characteristic weed of Negroland, which

every year,- at the beginning of the agricultural season,

is  cleared away, and which during  the  dry season

grows again, often to the height of ten or twelve feet.

We then had a most interesting  and cheerful scene of

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