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                  CHAP.  XXX.

               THE CAPITAL  OF BO'RNU.

Having  endeavoured  to impart  to the  reader  a

greater interest in the country, by relating its former

history, as far  as I was able to make it out, I shall

now give an account of my stay in Kukawa before

setting out on my journey to Adamawa.

  Regarding Kiikawa only  as the basis of my further

proceedings,  and as a  necessary station already suf¬

ficiently known to  the European public by the long

stay of the former expedition, I endeavoured to collect

as much information  as possible  with regard to the

surrounding countries.  Two of my friends were dis¬

tinguished by a good  deal of Mohammedan learning,

by  the precision  with which  they recollected the

countries they had wandered through, and by digni¬

fied  manners; but  they differed much in character,

and  were inclined to quarrel with each other as often

as they happened to meet in my house.

  These two men, to whom I am indebted for a great

deal  of  interesting and precise information, were

the Arab Ahmed bel  Mejiib, of that  division  of the

tribe  of the Wel&d bu-Seba who generally live in

the Wadi S&kiyet el Hamra, to the south of Morocco,

and the Piillo Ibrahim, son of the Sheikh el Mukhtdr,

in Kahdide on the Senegal, and cousin of the late

                               I