Musgow, a large kingdom to the south-east of Mandara, are particularly disagreeable in their appearance, although considered as very trustworthy, and capable of great labour: their hair is rolled up in three large plaits, which extend from the forehead to the back of the neck, like the Bornowy; one larger in the centre, and two smaller on each side: they have silver studs in their nose, and one large one just under the lower lip of the size of a shilling, which goes quite through into the mouth; to make room for this ornament, a tooth or two is sometimes displaced. The principal slaves are generally intrusted with the sale of such produce as the owner of them may have to dispose of; and if they come from any distance, the whole is brought on bullocks, which are harnessed after the fashion of the country, by a string or iron run through the cartilage of the nose, and a saddle of mat . The masters not unfrequently attend the fsug with their spears, and loiter about without interfering; purchases are mostly made by exchange of one commodity for another, or paid for by small beads, pieces of coral and amber, or the coarse linen manufactured by all the people, and sold at forty gubka* for a dollar. Amongst other articles offered to me for sale by the people (who, if I stood still for an instant, crowded round mej was a young hon and a monkey ; the latter appeared really the more dangerous of the two, and from being a degree or two lighter in complexion than his master, he seemed to have taken a decided aversion to me. The lion walked about with great unconcern, confined merely by a small rope round his neck held by the negro,, who had caught him when he was not two months old, and having had him for a period of three months, now wished to part with him : he was about the size of a donkey colt, with; very large limbs, and the people seemed to go very close to him without much alarm, notwithstanding * Gubka, about a yard English. he struck with his foot the leg of one man who stood in his way, and made the blood flow copiously: they opened the ring which was formed round this noble animal as I approached; and, coming within two or three yards of him, he fixed his eye upon me in a way that excited sensations I cannot describe, from which I was awakened by the fellow calling to me to come nearer, at the same time laying his hand on the animal’s back; a moment’s recollection convinced me that there could be no more danger nearer than where I was, and I stepped boldly up beside the' negro, and I believe should have laid my hand on the lion the next moment; but after looking carelessly at me, he brushed past my legs, broke the ring, and pulled his conductor away with him, overturning several who stood before him, and bounded off to another part where there were fewer people. Feb. 22.—Boo-Khaloom came to us this morning, after seeing the sheikh, and said, “ that he had explained to him our anxiety to see every thing, and take home the skins of birds, and gather the plants that appeared most interesting to us, and to take notes of what we saw.” The sheikh’s reply was, that “ we, or any of our countrymen, whom the bashaw thought proper to send, should be welcome to see any part of his dominions, but that out of them he could not suffer us at present to go.” Boo-Khaloom, who was fully aware of the ulterior objects we had in view, and whose advice I" always found dictated by an anxious desire to serve us, was of the greatest use, from his intimate acquaintance with the dispositions of the people; and he was of opinion that we should, in the first instance, be satisfied with this offer of the sheikh, and not alarm him, by declaring too abruptly all our intentions. Accustomed as they are to plunder, and to be plundered, at the sight of strangers, apparently possessing superior powers, and superior weapons to themselves, their alarm is not to be wondered a t ; and when these strangers were represented to them as having come from a distance
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