“Oh,” explained the builder through the interpreter, “the cement roof is another man’s work. Putting on a roof is never understood to be in our agreement. It is quite separate.”
The householder withheld payment, and on the dispute coming before the Resident’s Court—the tribunal which tries cases in which a white is complainant or defendant—the decision, based on local custom, was that the builder was right and that the other must pay.
CHAPTER XII
KANO MARKET
A cosmopolitan rendezvous—Arab merchants—The desert route and the iron-horse—War and commerce—Local industries—Arts and crafts—Skilled workers—Camels, cattle, sheep, horses—Pitiful brute suffering—An appeal.
Kano market is famed throughout Africa. To it pilgrims of commerce come east, north and a hundred and more directions between these points of the compass. It is said to be the largest market in the world, but a man who has also been to Timbuktu tells me that it is four times the size of Kano and has four times as many people frequenting it. Kano, however, need not bury its diminished head. If there be another Richmond in the field Kano shall not feel ashamed.
Various calculations have been made of the number of persons who congregate there on the busiest days of the week; 7,000, 8,000 have been figures given. I put it higher and estimate the crowds at 10,000 to 12,000 and one who probably knows Kano in this respect better than any other individual agrees with my rough-and-ready census.
What African cosmopolitan crowds they are! Not merely Fulanis, Hausas and Nupés, but Turegs—who gave the French so much trouble—Ansim men, Arabs from every part of North Africa on the Mediterranean—Tripoli, Morocco and Tunis—Arabs of every degree of colour, coal black to skins as white and clear as that of an English girl.
Fine-looking men most of them, and finely clothed: turbans of cambric and turbans of gold-like embroidered cloth. Vests—resembling an army officer’s mess jacket—also of embroidered cloth, the edges set with valuable lace of rare make and exquisite quality. Beneath the full robe of white, blue or other colour, trousers on which fancy work of many designs have been wrought. Each of these garments costs a matter of sovereigns. I have handled vests for which the owners paid £7 each.
See these gaily-bedecked Arab magnates mounted. The native saddle with curved-up back displays the skill of yet another craftsman; saddle cloth of brilliant and varied hues—scarlet to yellow—girth straps picked out with designs woven in silver. Bridle and head-collar hidden behind tassels and hanging cords bearing more tints than the rainbow when the sun shines brilliantly after a summer shower. The running, horse-attendant completes the picture of men of affluence who omit nothing the absence of which would detract from their rank and dignity.