"Abdallah," Said He, "I Had A Dream Last Night, And Am Perusing This Book To Find Out What It Meant.

Do you believe in such things?"

"No, my lord gadado. I consider books of dreams to be full of idle conceits. God gives a man wisdom to guide his conduct, while dreams are occasioned by the accidental circumstances of sleeping with the head low, excess of food, or uneasiness of mind."

"Abdallah," he replied, smiling, "this book tells me differently." He then mentioned, that, in a few days, the sultan was going on another expedition, and wished him to join it; but that he preferred remaining, in order to have a mosque, which was then building, finished before the Rhamadan, lest the workmen should idle away their time in his absence.

Previously to the sultan's departure, he sent Clapperton a present of two large baskets of wheat, who now began to think seriously of retracing his steps to Kano. He was sitting in the shade before his door, with Sidi Sheik, the sultan's fighi, when an ill-looking wretch, with a fiend-like grin on his countenance, came and placed himself directly before Clapperton, who immediately asked Sidi Sheik who he was. He immediately answered, "The executioner." Clapperton instantly ordered his servants to turn him out. "Be patient," said Sidi Sheik, laying his hand upon that of Clapperton; "he visits the first people in Sockatoo, and they never allow him to go away without giving him a few goora nuts, or money to buy them." In compliance with this hint, Clapperton requested forty kowries to be given to the fellow, with strict orders never again to cross his threshold.

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