STAY AT SAY 307 look after my flock again. You are my milch cow, you are my great luganr He was at no pains to disguise the true motives for his devotion, and we were at least able to hope to bind him to us by self-interest.

Osman and Pullo had certain qualities in common, for both were equally covetous of presents, and equally ready to tell lies with imperturbable seriousness ; but whereas Polio carried on his deceptions with the air of a grand seignior and the smile of a superior man, such as a Fulah might wear who hnd been brought in contact with the Tuaregs, Osman showed his avarice and venality without the slightest attempt at disguise.

The two enjoyed a monopoly of the news, generally false, as 1 have already said, brought to us from the Say market. They hit upon another dodge too, and a very lucrative one ; this was to introduce to us envoys more or less genuine, and more or less interesting, from the chiefs of the outlying districts and villages. At first Pullo or Khalifa, as he was also called, worked at this trade alone, and it would be our first amusement in the morning to climb the ant-hill in front of the fort and look out for him. We generally saw him pretty soon, his approach heralded by a red spot on the horizon.

I read in my notes of May 16 — "At about eight o'clock, far away on the borders of the wood in the direction of Say, we see approaching the thin figure of Pullo Sidib, surmounted by his dirty fez, balanced in an uncertain kind of way upon his head. He is followed by a gentleman in a clean white bubu. * Page, pretty page,' we cry> * what news do you bring ? ' With this extraordinary personage everything is possible. I expect some morning to hear him announce with the air of some herald of a great embassy, " Amadu Cheiku !