Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/433

 towns farther north are exposed to the attacks of the equally formidable Tuareg and Aulad-Sliman nomads.

In western Bornu, watered by the Yeu, Clapperton, Barth, and Rohlfs mention several towns with over ten thousand inhabitants. Near the ancient Birni is the village of Ngurutna, where Richardson died of exhaustion in 1851. Farther west follow Surrikolo, Borsari, Khadeja, Bundi, Mashena, Gummel, and Birmenawa, the last two on the frontier and peopled by Haussawa, although belonging to Bornu. The north-west angle of the kingdom is occupied by the vassal state of Sinder

(Zinder), visited and sometimes plundered by the Tuareg nomads. Here is also a little settlement of Jewish "converts" from the Mediterranean seaboard. The capital, built at the east foot of a bluff, has been called the "Gate of Sudan," owing to the Tuareg traders in salt, who have formed their camping ground in the vicinity.

The Munio hills, which eae like a promontory into the steppe bordering on the desert, have also some important places, such as Guré, Vushek, and farther south Buné and Suleri, near which is a natron lake, and another with two basins,