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The dried slices are stored for use; and they are generally pounded in a mortar into flour, and used as a kind of porridge. The sickness of the people continued for about an hour, during which time all kinds of invectives were hurled against Ibrahimawa, and his botany was termed a gigantic humbug. From that day he was very mild in his botanical conversation.

These were at once pronounced by Ibrahimawa to be a perfect god-send, and after a few minutes' grubbing he produced a basketful of fine-looking yams. In an instant this display of food attracted a crowd of hungry people, including those of Ibrahim and my own men, who, not being botanists, had left the search for food to Ibrahimawa, but who determined to share the tempting results.

Such were instances of life and recollections of Ibrahimawa, the Bornu. On June 16, Koorshid's people returned from Obbo. Ibrahim and a few men had remained there, and distrusting the warlike spirit of the Latookas, he now recalled the entire establishment from Tarrangolle, intending to make a station at the more peaceful country of Obbo.

Ibrahimawa, the Bornu man, alias "Sinbad the Sailor," the great traveller, amuses and bores me daily with his long and wonderful stories of his travels. He described another country as a perfect Paradise, where no one ever drank anything so inferior as water.

Presently the boy Saat showed symptoms of distress, and vanished from our presence; and all those that had dined off Ibrahimawa's botanical specimens were suffering from a most powerful "vomi-purgatif." The angels that watch over scientific botanists had preserved Ibrahimawa from all evil.

That night we bivouacked at the foot of the east-side of the pass at about half-past five. Ibrahimawa, the Bornu man whom I have already described as the amateur botanist, had become my great ally in searching for all that was curious and interesting. Proud of his knowledge of wild plants, no sooner was the march ended than he commenced a search in the jungles for something esculent.

Ibrahimawa, the scientific botanist, was left without a yam, after all his labour of grubbing up a basketful. Pots were boiling in all directions, and a feast in store for the hungry men who had marched twenty miles without eating since the morning.

A few days later, a girl about sixteen, and her mother, who were slaves, were missing; they had escaped. The hue and cry was at once raised. Ibrahimawa, the "Sinbad" of Bornu, who had himself been a slave, was the most indefatigable slave-hunter. He and a party at once started upon the tracks of the fugitives.

It was in vain that I attempted to reason with them against the principles of slavery: they thought it wrong when they were themselves the sufferers, but were always ready to indulge in it when the preponderance of power lay upon their side. Among Ibrahim's people, there was a black named Ibrahimawa.