MISTAKES AND FALSE NEWS 363 Galadio was in this respect a thorough Fulah, although he had Bambarra blood in his veins. His mother was a Fulah, of the Culibaly tribe, and he deceived us perpetually with good words which meant nothing. Still I must do him the justice to add, that he was careful to save us from being involved in open war. Perhaps he saw how fatal that would be to his own influence, or he may have dreaded it as a calamity for the country he was now living in, or for the people over whom he had been set. Anyhow he managed to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds : in other words, to keep in with Amadu and us.

He always gave us to understand, that if the worst came to the worst he would at least preserve a strict neutrality, and as a reward for this he got many very fine presents. He was treated almost as the equal of Madidu himself, and he too received from us a velvet saddle embroidered with gold.

His messengers were provided with a pass by us, and were received with all due honour, for it was not until quite the end of our stay that the mystery was solved, and Galadio appeared in his true colours. Of his own free will he had concluded a regular treaty with me, a treaty drawn up quite formally in Arabic and French, and which he signed with his own name. He showed, moreover, a very eager wish to enter into relations with Bandiagara.

Apf'il 30. — Khalifa is certainly an extraordinary man. To-night he is to bring to us in a canoe, when the moon is set and all is silence, darkness, and mystery, no less a person than the brother of the chief of Say. We watch all night for the signal agreed upon of the approach of our guests : the lighting of a candle on the bank of the river, but nothing is to be seen. Was the whole thing simply a manceuvre on the part of Pullo to get possession of a box of matches and a candle ? Perhaps so, for one of his chief delights when he is in any of our tents, — and he is very often