208 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY from Barbary would always fetch their price. The king was specially fond of horses, paid for them liberally, and always caused himself to be informed when good ones were brought into the town for sale. Gold plate was also apparently remarkable. Leo Africanus says that ** the rich king of Timbuctoo had many plates and sceptres of gold, of which some weighed as much as 1300 lbs." As we are not told that the Askia was waited on by a race of giants, we may permit ourselves to doubt the statement that he caused himself to be served on trays that weighed 1300 lbs. Yet we may remember the famous missorium or dish for the service of the table, which in the sixth century was found by the Franks in the Gothic palace of Nar bonne, and of which even the grave and careful Gibbon accepts the statement that it weighed 500 lbs. of massy gold. Taken in conjunction with previous accounts of the gold plate of the sovereigns of Melle and the magnificent arms of their retainers, this statement may at least be accepted as showing that the court of the Askias was well supplied with the precious metal.

Among the amusements of the town, music held always a high place, and under Askia the Great's successors, orchestras, provided with singers of both sexes, were much frequented. Of Askia the Great himself, it is said that "his mind was set towards none of these things.*' Chess-playing, of a kind which is particularly described as "Soudanese chess," was sometimes carried to the extreme of a passion. We hear of a general in the reign of one of the succeeding Askias, who gave it as an excuse for allowing himself to be surprised by the enemy's cavalry, that he was so much absorbed in a game of chess as not to have paid attention to the reports of his scouts. The whole town in Askia the Great's day was very rich, the people living with great abundance, and trade was active.

The currency was of gold, without any stamp or superscription, but for small objects in the native markets shells were still used.