190 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

in this manner the call to arms is circulated over the country.

The chief of each town or village with as little delay as possible assembles his followers (or division, if it may be so called), and proceeds to head-quarters, where those chiefs consult with the king on the plan of attack or defence. No regular division of the army takes place, nor is there any provision made for its support or equipment ; each man provides for himself such means of support, arms, and ammunition, as he can afford, and so badly are they furnished with the two latter, that when 1 saw the army assembled, a great many indeed had no other weapons than a knife and a bludgeon of hard wood. On some occasions, a favoured few receive two or three charges of powder and ball with a couple of flints : and in some very solitary instances indeed, his majesty confers marks of his royal favour on one, by a present of a horse, and on another a gun. Provisions they find as they can, and woe to the stores and cattle of that town where they are assembled for any time.

Whenever the object of the campaign is not decided on within a few days, the least effective persons disappear, and may be said to reduce the whole force one-third, and even then many might be found, who remain with no other ob-