[19] There is evidently some relation between the Háusa, the Berber, and the Coptic languages, not in the general vocabularies, but chiefly in the demonstratives, such as “me,” “hakka,” and the prepositions, such as “ná,” “dá,” “gá,” “dága,” “garé.” See the excellent analysis of the Berber language by Newman, in “Zeitschrift für Kunde des Morgenlandes,” vol. vii. a. 1845, pp. 268, 277, 278; (on the feminine forms “ita,” “ta,”) pp. 282, 291, 296. Many more specimens, however, may now be added.
[20] It is also a very remarkable fact, that Dáura claims the glory of having had an apostle of its own, Mohammed ʿAli el Baghdádi; and with this fact the circumstance, that the holy place which I noticed on my tour from Tin-téllust to Ágades is called by some “msíd Sídi Baghdádi,” may probably be connected. Whether Dáura be identical with el Bekri’s Daur, or Daw, is a question of some importance, since, if it really be so, it would appear to have been a considerable place at a very early period; but I prefer not to enter here upon the slippery ground of comparative geography.
[22] In Timbúktu I was enabled to peruse a long letter from Maghíli to Is-hák about points of religion. This is the only work of Maghíli, which I was able to discover in Negroland. There were two Sónghay kings of the name of Is-hák—the first, who ruled from A.H. 946-956, and the second, who was the last king of the dynasty, when Gógho or Gógó was conquered by the Basha Jodár the 17th Jumad eʾ tháni, 999; but there is no doubt that the first is meant. What I have said about the grandson of Maghíli’s dispute with Is-hák is the common tradition in Negroland, and, I think, deserves more confidence than what M. Cherbonneau has made out in Constantine. See Journal Asiatique, 1855. He says, “Après cet horrible massacre, el Mʿrili quitta Touat pour s’enfoncer dans le cœur du Soudan. Il parcourut successivement Tekra (? Tirka), Kachène et Kanou. Dans les deux premières villes il enseigna publiquement la science du Koran; dans l’autre il fit un cours de jurisprudence. De là il passa à Karou (ou Tchiarou, suivant la prononciation locale), et fut invité par el Hadj Mohammed, qui en était le gouverneur, à rédiger une note sur différentes questions de droit. Il était depuis peu dans cette ville, lorsqu’on vint lui apprendre que son fils avait été assassiné par les juifs de Touat. Il repartit et mourut presque au moment de son arrivée.”
[23] “Hábe,” plural of the singular “Kádo,” is a general term now applied by the Fúlbe to the conquered race; but in this instance the application is different. It is not improbable that the conquerors extended the meaning of this term, which originally applied only to one dynasty, to the whole conquered nation.
[24] This name, in the corrupted form “Kilinghiwa,” Mr. Cooley has connected with the Berbers, in his excellent little work on the Negroland of the Arabs.
[25] It was most probably a king of Kátsena, whom Makrízi entitled King of Áfunú (Hamaker, Spec. Cat., p. 206), remarking the jealousy with which he watched his wives, although the name Mastúd which he gives to him, does not occur in the lists of the kings of Kátsena which have come to my knowledge, and does not even seem to be a true native name. The power of the Prince of Kátsena towards the end of the last century (Lucas, Horneman) seems to have been rather transient being based on the then weakness of Bórnu.
[26] Laird’s and Oldfield’s Narrative, vol. i., p. 233. As this clear and rational conviction, which the meritorious man who has laboured so long for that part of Africa entertained, has been entirely confirmed by my succeeding discovery, I think it well to give to it all the publicity which it deserves. The two learned geographers of Africa, Mr. Cooley and MacQueen, concurred entirely in this opinion.
[27] There is a great variety of this article, of which I shall enumerate a few kinds:—“farí-n-zénne,” the white undyed one; “zénne déffowa,” of light-blue colour; “fessagída,” with a broad line of silk; “hammakúku,” with less silk, sold generally for three thousand kurdí; “mailémú,” sold for two thousand five hundred; “zelluw-ámi,” a peculiar zénne with a silk border; “jumáda,” another similar kind; “da-n-katánga,” once a very favourite article of female dress, and therefore called “the child of the market” (of the word katánga, I have spoken on a former occasion), with red and black silk in small quantity, and a little white; “albáss-n-Kwára,” a very peculiar name, chosen to denote a kind of zénne of three stripes of mixed colours; “gódo,” white and black and of thick thread; “alkílla,” white and black chequered “sáki,” silk and cotton interwoven, and forming small squares black and white; “kéki,” half túrkedí (that is to say indigo-coloured), half “sáki,” or silk and cotton interwoven; “kéki serkí bókoy,” four kinds. Besides, there are ten kinds of zénnwa entirely of silk, but these are made better in Núpe than in Kanó. One of these, called “biní da gáni” (follow me and look), a name which is also given to a conspicuous kind of beads, is distinguished by three colours—yellow, red, and blue. Then there is a zénne made of atlas, called “massarchí”; another of coloured Manchester; and the simple one of Manchester, which is called “béfta.”
[28] Among these specimens is also an undyed and a dyed specimen of the “ríga tsámia,” which seems to deserve a good deal of interest, as it consists half of home-made silk, obtained from a peculiar kind of silkworm, which lives on the tamarind-tree. I also sent home from Kúkawa, at a former period, a piece of native cloth of the Kwána, a tribe of the Korórofa.