Ordering the horses to be brought, I carefully pared their feet.

Their hard flinty hoofs, that had never felt a shoe, were in excellent order for a gallop, if necessary.

All being ready, I sent for the chief of Gondokoro.
Meanwhile a Bari boy arrived, sent by Koorshid Aga, to act as my interpreter.
The Bari chief was, as usual, smeared all over with red ochre and fat, and had the shell of a small land tortoise suspended to his elbow as an ornament.

I proposed to him my plan of riding quickly through the Bari tribe to Moir.

He replied, "Impossible! If I were to beat the great nogaras (drums), and call my people together to explain who you are, they would not hurt you; but there are many petty chiefs who do not obey me, and their people would certainly attack you when crossing some swollen torrent, and what could you do with only a man and a boy ?" His reply to my question concerning the value of beads corroborated Richarn's statement: nothing could be purchased for anything but cattle.
The traders had commenced the system of stealing herds of cattle from one tribe to barter with the next neighbor; thus the entire country was in anarchy and confusion, and beads were of no value.