N.B. The news of the Sarkee having "eaten up" four countries of Korgum is confirmed to-day.
The preparation of kibabs is quite a science here. The kibab cook makes a conical hillock of dust and ashes, flattened on the top. The edge of this mound he plants with sticks, on which is skewered a number of little bits of meat: then a fire is kindled between this circular forest, and the sticks are twisted round from time to time, so that every part may be well roasted. To us these kibabs are cheap enough, five or six cowries a stick.
The wall of Zinder has no gates, only openings. I went to the garden of the Shereef. The vegetation does not look very flourishing in this season. The Shereef has planted some horse-beans; "the only beans of the kind," says the gardener, "in all the territories of Bornou."
31st.—The weather is increasingly cool; therm. at sunrise, 50°. The atmosphere of Zinder never clears up. I was awakened this morning, before daylight, by the cries of "Fire!" A fire of huts was raging close upon us. This is the third accident of this kind which has taken place during the sixteen days we have been here. The people take them, as a matter of course, with Californian indifference, and it is likely that there are two or three fires every ten days.
A merchant from Kanou (native of Tunis) called to see me. He says the English (Americans) now bring calicoes, powder, dollars, rum, wadâs, guns, and many other things, to Niffee, which afterwards are sent up to Kanou. The slave-trade, therefore, must thrive here; and we get the credit of it, because the ruffians by whom it is carried on speak our language.
A great fighi called also to-day to explain any dreams which I might require the interpretation of, bringing with him his Tifsir El-Helam. I told him that last night I dreamt I saw "two persons fall to the ground upon (from?) the boughs of a tree." He searched his book and produced a passage, the pith of which was, that anything which I undertake will not be accomplished. Very agreeable information! I thought we had had bad news enough. The passage made to apply prophetically to me ran literally as follows:—
"And whosoever sees (in dreams) a tree fall, or any thing fall from it,—then will not accomplish itself the thing which is between the man who thus dreams."[18]
I hired to-day Mohammed Ben Amud Bou Saad, at a salary of ten reals of Fezzan a month.
I have heard another version of the plan and cause of the present razzia of the Sultan of Zinder. "Our own correspondents" cannot be more versatile in finding out rumours than the gossips of Zinder. It is now said that the Sultan of Korgum wrote to the Sarkee of Zinder, and asked him if he should make a razzia on or with Maradee.