TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 189 at the pummel or front horn of their saddle. One leather bag, to contain water, and another, a small store of dried cous cous, for their own provision, together with a nose bag, and a fetter of the same material, for their horse, make up the catalogue of their marching baggage, and are all fastened, by leather straps, to the back part of the saddle, which is at best but a bad one, being chiefly composed of pieces of wood, tied together by thongs of raw cow hide, and which, when wet, stretches so as to allow the wood to come in contact with the horse's back, and wound it in a shocking manner.

The disposable force of Bondoo from all the information I could collect, does not exceed from 500 to 600 horse, and from 2000 to 3000 foot. When Aimamy finds it necessary to call this army to the field for the protection of the country, or with the intention of invading the territories of some of his neighbours, he repairs with his own immediate followers to some village at a short distance from the capital, and there beats the war drum *, which is repeated by each village, and * This is composed of a large wooden bowl nearly three feet diameter, covered with three skins, one of which is said to be that of a human being, another a hyena's, and the third, or outside one, a monkey's ; this latter is covered with Arabic characters and passages from the Koran. See fig- % pi- 9.