filled with paste of the gussub flour, with hot fat and pepper poured over it, mixed with a proportionate seasoning of onions. This was considered as the very acme of Mandara cooking; it was savoury, and not very unpleasant; but a few sides of mutton roasted, which came for the chiefs, was the better part of our fare. Malem Chadily betook himself to another bowl, because on Barca Gana’s putting the mess towards me, I had, as usual, plunged my right hand in without any ceremony. Barca Gana saw that I observed it, and his dread of the sheikh’s displeasure induced him to make some observation in Bornouese, which drove the fighi out of the te n t: this distressed me, and I determined on adopting some measures for preventing the repetition of these disagreeables. On the 23d we halted; but I was so dreadfully bitten by the ants and other insects, which beset us in myriads, that my hands and eyes were so swelled that I could scarcely hold a pen, or see to use one: added to this, the heat was again insufferable; for several hours in the middle of the day, the thermometer was as.high as 118°. Covering myself up with all the blankets I could find afforded me the greatest relief—these defending me as well from the flies as the power of the sun: occasionally making my negro pour cold water on my head was another undescribable comfort. I passed the greater part of the evening with Boo-Khaloom, who had seen the sultan of Mandara in the day. He complained of being delayed ; but was, nevertheless, still sanguine, and believed the sultan was endeavouring to find him a Kerdy country, which he was to attack; it, however, never was the intention of the sultan of Mandara to take any such steps, or the sheikh’s wish that he should. It was against people who would create in the Arabs a little more respect for spears and arrows, that the sheikh wished them to be sent; and this he thought could not better be accomplished than by consigning them to the sultan of Mandara, whose natural enemies, as well as his own, were the Felatahs, the most warlike people in the whole country. Mandara had been several times conquered by these Felatah tribes, which extend over an immense space of country: they are found through the whole of Soudan, quite to Timbuctoo, and at D’jennie on the Quolla they form the greatest part of the population. A very populous town, Conally, to the west of D’jennie, is inhabited wholly by Felatahs *. They are a very handsome race of people, of a deep copper colour, who seldom mix their blood with that of the negroes, have a peculiar language of their own, and are Moslem. They bear some resemblance to the Shouaas, although they are quite a distinct race. South-west of Mandara is a country called Ivarowa ; and these two countries were formerly governed by one sultan (Kerdy), until Mandara was wrested from them by the Felatahs of Musfeia and Kora. The son of the sultan of Karowa, the present sultan, succeeded in recovering Mandara out of their hands, and has since been able to keep possession, as they aver, from his having become Moslem—be that as it may, he is now a Musselman, and an intelligent one for his situation : his resources are great, and his country by nature easy to defend. About ten years ago, he found so little defence from the walls of his then residence Delow, against the attacks of the Felatahs, that he built the new town Mora, nearly facing the north, and situated under a semicircular ridge of very picturesque mountains. These natural barriers form a strong rampart on every side but one, and he has hitherto withstood the attempts of his enemies. I t is rather a curious circumstance that no Shouaas are to be found in the Mandara dominions, nor any where to the south of them. The Sheikh El Kanemy, very shortly after his successes and eleva- * Abdul Kassum-ben-Maliki came from this town, and speaks o f his people as having great influence with the sultan o f Timbuctoo: their language is a like; and he conversed as freely with a Felatah slave from Musfeia, as if she had been his countrywoman, although they were born probably fifteen hundred miles distant from each other. Q 2
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