shiḅa or saḅi = carded cotton; vide under [abduga].
shibra or shura, vide under [gero].
shinaka (Sok. Kats., &c.), Ctenium elegans, Kunth. (Gramineæ). A grass about 2 feet high with a single one-sided bristly flower-spike. Syn. wutsiyar kusu. (The name includes the similar species Schœnefeldia gracilis, Kunth. with several one-sided flower-spikes). Used in thatching.
shinkafa, Oryza sativa, Linn. (Gramineæ). Rice; cultivated in marshes and inundated localities. shanshera or burungu = rice grain in the husk; ḍanyen gumi = husked but unboiled rice; gumi = husked rice boiled and dried; bawu (Sok. Ful.?), or shinkafa wutsiya = rice unsown but growing sporadically from fallen grains; often harvested and eaten.
shinkafe, or lalaki (Sok.), Oryza silvestris, Stapf. Wild Rice; common in marshes and pools; much used for thatch and eaten in scarcity; (= Ful. nanare, name used equally by Hausas in Sokoto). Syn. shinkafar rishi (Katsina and East; rishi = wart-hog, gadu or mugun dăwa, which eats the roots).
shirinya, Ficus sp. (Urticaceæ). Narrow-leaved fig-tree. A large tree with milky juice and small figs. Syn. shiriya (Sok.).
shiwaka, Vernonia amygdalina, Delile (Compositæ). A shrub with whitish flowers, wild and commonly planted in compounds; the root is used as a tooth-stick and bitter tonic, and the leaves medicinally in various ways. maye (Sok.), or fatte (Kano), or fate fate (East Hausa), is a secret medicine of women, prepared from the leaves along with other native drugs.
shiwakar jan garigari, a shrub with bitter properties like the above. (Etym. because said to grow in places of red soil). Anaphrenium pulcherrimum, Schweinf. (Anacardiaceæ), and probably others.
shuni, prepared indigo; the blue dye-stuff extracted from [baba], usually sold as blue cones or lumps.
shunin biri (Kontagora), Lonchocarpus laxiflorus, G. et P. (Leguminosæ). A small tree with bunches of purple flowers. Syn. farin sansami (Sok. and Kats.), halshen sa (Zanfara). In some pagan districts this is called babar talaki, and used as a dye; vide [talaki].