“ZAKI! ZAKI!”
Natives giving the usual salutation to a white man.
RESPECT TO THE AGED IS SHOWN BY REMOVING THE SHOES AND CURTSEYING.
I must not, however, close this chapter without short acknowledgment of assistance I have received here from two men among several others. If I were to mention at every place the courtesy and aid received I should have to tabulate a list and give the names of almost all with whom I came into repeated contact. At Kano, however, the early difficulties in being in a position to acquire full information were as unexpected as they have been exceptional. The task has been fulfilled, thanks in particular to Mr. W. P. Byrd, Agent of the Niger Company, and Captain J. J. Brocklebank, of the London and Kano Trading Company. The facilities for moving about which they gave me, especially Mr. Byrd in that respect, and the channels of information which I was enabled to reach by the help of both allowed me to carry out my duty almost as well as if I had gone forth arrayed in local, exalted patronage. My indebtedness for much interesting knowledge is also due to my excellent native friends, Adamu Ch’Kardi, of Kano, and to Suly, of Fuggi, the adjoining village. With sincere regret I take leave of them and of others whom I frequently met.
CHAPTER XVI
THE BAUCHI LIGHT RAILWAY
Zaria and other stations—The two gauges—Through new country—Second-hand rails—A new post for Sir Frederick Lugard—A relic of tribal warfare—Sport for the gun—A derailment—Blend of tongues—Smart re-railing work.
Going down the railway from Kano the traveller opens his eyes widely at Zaria Station. At Kano there is no platform and no station. Time had not been sufficient to build either. Passengers climb into the train from the rails. For 90 miles southwards—to Zaria—the same conditions exist, with this difference, that there are not so many people to see the engine and carriages and their human freight as at the terminus. At Kano a small corrugated iron shed for the telegraph instruments, a mud house for the office, and a board indicating the place are all that mark the spot. You thoroughly realise you are in a country only recently opened.