ink-bottles, which are made of small calabashes. They wrote for me some
specimens of their penmanship, a charm, _fatah_, or first chapter of the
Koran. They wrote and formed their letters sideways, as some lawyers'
clerks do in England.

Dambaba Makersee took the liberty of informing me to-day, as if I did
not know it before, that all the things of us Christians were considered
by the Kailouees generally as common property, and that whoever could
lay hold of any ought to do so without qualm or scruple; but, he added,
when you arrive in Zinder, all will be changed. Let us hope so,
_Inshallah_!

Strings of charms are worn by the men occasionally under the arm, or
suspended over the shoulders, as well as round the neck. The charm or
armlet of the Moors and Tuaricks corresponds with the _Fetish_ of the
ancient Kohlan, people of Soudan, and of the present negro races on the
western coast.

I finished the statistics of the towns and villages of Asben--after all,
a very imperfect affair. Nevertheless, it is the best which I could make
from my materials.

En-Noor paid me a visit in the morning, and stopped gossiping two hours.
From him I learnt that the Fellatah language has no relation to the
Arabic or Tuarick, but is quite a language peculiar in itself. He also
informed us that the Gouberites were still at war with the Fellatahs of
Sakkatou; that they were united with the people of Maradee, ancient
Kohlans like themselves, and that this united force had been lately
gaining their lost ground against the new Muslim powers in Soudan.
En-Noor seems to favour the re-establishment of these people against the