more favorable for cultivation. However, some of these ravines are rich in springs, and capable of producing a variety of fruit, especially grapes and figs. I will here only mention the deep gutter of the valley Mas, or Janet, to the south-west of Ghat, and the celebrated valley of Temasanin, the point of junction of the roads from Tawat to Ghadamis and from Ghit to Wargela, and which contains small alpine lakes, which are even capable of breeding alligators. But it is a characteristic feature that all these mountains are destitute of timber, while only the valleys produce middle-sized trees.

Sandhills.-A very remarkable feature in the desert, and of the highest importance for the direction of the great commercial highroads, are the Regions of Sandhills. But these regions are of a twofold and totally different character, the one consisting of ridges of sand of more or less elevation and of different breadth, but running almost constantly in a direction from E. N. E. to W. S. W. We ourselves on our outward journey crossed one of these most difficult tracts in latitude 27 degrees, between Wadi Schati and Wadi Gharbi, having a breadth in a direct line of 60 geographical miles. From the point mentioned, this zone of sandhills, with an occasional interruption, stretches to the north of Ghat and to the south of Tawat, with very little elevation; but to the south-west of Tawat vast regions of sandhills are formed, stretching through the districts of Ergshesh, Gidi or Igidi, and Waran, to the almost impassable zone of Maghter, between Ijil and the Atlantic. However difficult this belt of sandhills may be for the passage of caravans where they are obliged to cut straight across the various ridges, which in many instances reach the elevation of from 800 to 1000 feet, nevertheless this formation is not so unfavorable for human existence, as a great deal of moisture is collected in the sinks or depressions between the various ridges; so that in most of the regions which I have just mentioned a large supply of dates is produced, which are sufficient for sustaining a moderate population, although man is not enabled to fix his residence for any length of time in these shifting sandhills. Totally different from these zones of sand-ridges is the formation of isolated sand-hills, called A'kela, or Aukar, or Eriggi, which are incapable of collecting any amount of moisture, and are generally totally destitute of water, the temporary nomadic inhabitants relying for their supply of the watery element upon watermelons, in which these tracts are generally rich.

With regard to the principal features of the desert 1 will only add, that one of its most characteristic features is the immense change of temperature. Here we find the greatest heat in summer, and a degree of cold in winter which approaches that of by far more northerly latitudes, the difference between the maximum and minimum being as much as 80 degrees, and probably more. With regard to the supposed dryness of these sterile tracts, it has been greatly exaggerated, occasional showers refreshing these hot

regions, at least along the more favored line, which is followed by the caravans, and even along the sterile tract by way of the Tebu country. I had an occasional light shower of rain in the month of June, 1855, as far north as nearly the 19th degree of N. latitude; and the same was experienced by us on our outward journey, in 1850, about the same season.

The Fertile Regions.- About the general character of the fertile regions of Negroland I will not here speak: my volumes contain material enough for any body who wants more particulars about them. I will only say, that although the immense chain of the Mountains of the Moon does not exist, as it had been supposed, the interior of these regions is not at all of that uniform and monotonous character which seems to be now presumed by most people. Of course alluvial tracts of countries, such as the greater part of Bornu, cannot be but of a uniform and most monotonous character, and in this respect they must resemble the immense plains of the Ganges and Indus; but on the other hand, if we do not take into regard the vast chains of the Himalayas, which rather borders India than forms part of it, the whole of Inner Africa, as far as it fell under my observation, seems quite as varied as any part of India. Mountains between 5000 and 6000 feet are not at all rare, and most beautiful and picturesque glens and valleys are formed by them. Unfortunately we have not yet any positive knowledge of that vast mountainous region which feeds the sources of the Niger, Senegal, and Gambia, and which seems to be a most interesting country. The general middle altitude of mountainous tracts is 2500 feet.

II. I now proceed to make a few observations on the manner in which the population, as far as we are able to discern from the traces such are distinguishable in the dim light which has as yet been thrown upon this difficult subject, settled down in the regions thus pointed out. We acknowledge distinctly one stream of population extending from Syria along the seacoast to the far west, and thence thrown back by the Atlantic; and in consequence of the pressure applied to it by a supervening stream of a different character, but coming likewise from the east, returning southward. This is the great North African race-the Berbers or Mazigh, who still at the present day, in various shades and degrees of intermixture with Arabs and Negroes, form the principal stock of the whole population of North Africa, from Cape Spartel and Ras Adar, or Cape Bon, as far as the Senegal and Niger.

We observe another stream of emigration proceeding from South Arabia through Sennar and Abyssinia, and pushing on till meeting the other stream from the north. But while the principal race of North Africa, like that of South Africa, has preserved most distinctly its unity and connexion, the mixture and shading of tribes in the fertile lands of Negroland, between the 5th and 15th, and in some places the 16th degree of N. latitude, has been going on in such a remarkable manner that only the most accurate study of the idioms of all these tribes can furnish us with a thread which lead us with some degree of security through this ethnographic labyrinth.

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I will point out the principal seats of the most conspicuous among these tribes of Central Negroland, and will attempt, from an historical point of view, to give a few characteristic features of them. But I first beg to call attention to a very remarkable fact which ethnologists, who make any attempt at deciding the most intricate question with regard to the origin of the human race, must not leave out of their view. For although we see already plainly from the Egyptian sculptures that even as early as thirty centuries before our era the black race of negroes was distinctly developed, yet it is a very remarkable fact that nearly all the tribes which I have to mention include two distinct classes, one of a lighter and the other of a darker shade. Thus we find that the tribe of the Masina, a section of the great Mandingo, or Wakore stock, who originally were settled in Tishit, consisted of two distinct classes, one white (that is to say of a lighter complexion), the other black. The Jolof and Fulbe are only different branches of the same original race, Jolof meaning "black," and Pullo, the singular tense of Fulbe, meaning "red." Thus also among the Berbers we find a good many tribes which are divided into two distinct classes; the Blacks, or "Esattafnen;" and the Whites, or "Emellulen ;" and the same distinction with regard to color in the same tribe I myself found among the tribes to the south of Bornu, and a similar phenomenon has been observed by other travellers in other regions.

In speaking of the principal tribes of Northern Central Africa I have first again to mention the Berbers, who, although properly belonging to North Africa, yet, as the propagators of Islam and Mohammedan civilization in general, and as the founders of well-organized kingdoms and dynasties in the fertile regions of Negroland, deserve here to be mentioned in the first rank. Even for Europeans attempting to open intercourse with those regions from the mouth of the Niger this tribe must be considered as of the very highest importance, as being in possession at the present time, and dominating the whole middle course of the Niger from near Say up to Timbuktu.

The Berbers are of immense importance in the whole question of African and Asiatic ethnography, as a link between various and most distant races. They were known already to the ancient Egyptians in their seats near Aujaila, and are represented by them in their sculptures with the characteristic feature of the long curl on the right of the head, their earrings, and their light colour, and with their name Maha (Mazigh).

The Berbers are capable of great development, of the finest bodily frame, very tall and muscular, full of intelligence, application, industry, and warlike disposition. In former times they were organizing and founded mighty kingdoms, not only in the northern region, called by us Barbary, but also in the south, on the very border of Negroland. At present, in the regions towards the north, they are intermixed with the Arabs, having lost a great portion of their nationality; and in the regions towards the south they are broken up in smaller fractions, which only, in consequence of some momentary pressure, acknowledge the supremacy of some paramount chief.

The Berbers, more or less influenced by Arabic civilization, and speaking dialects greatly intermixed with Arabic, constitute the principal part of the population of the whole of Barbary under the various names of Breber, Zenata, Shilluh, and Shawia, to the numbers of between 7,000,000 and 8,000,000. As free Imoshagh, retaining the greater part of their original nationality in their seats between Fezzan, the southernmost frontier of Algeria, and Tawat, on the one, and Hausa on the Niger on the other side, they may number from 150,000 to 200,000. Moreover, the Moorish tribes settled in the western half of the desert, between the route leading from Tawat to Timbuktu and the Atlantic, have been greatly intermixed with Berber elements, and absorbed whole tribes which once constituted the chief and most distinguished sections of the Berber family.

The Berbers in their political and intellectual inroad of Negroland principally came in contact with three nations: the Kanuri, on the north and south side of the Tsad; the Songhay, on the north-eastern bend of the Niger; and the great race of the Wangarawa, or Mandingo, to the west of the great northerly bend, and on the various branches of the upper course of the Niger.

I now proceed to make a few remarks about this important tribe of the Wangarawas, or, as they are generally called, the Mandingoes. The name Mandingo does not seem to belong to the nation in general, but only to its south-westernmost fractions. I once thought it was entirely of European origin, and proceeded from a corruption of the term Mellinke, inhabitant of Melle; but Mandi is the name of a section of the whole tribe. The common name of the race in Timbuktu and thereabout is Wangara, pl. Wangarawa; and this term, which has puzzled geographers so much and caused so much dispute about a country Wangara, is nothing but the name of the Mandingoes. The meaning, therefore, is neither "gold country" nor "swampy region," although the Wangarawa are the chief traders in gold, and most of their regions are richly provided by nature with this metal, besides that they are watered with numbers of rivers and smaller watercourses. What I have here said explains fully the fact that the name Mandingo is not mentioned by earlier writers.

The Wangarawa, although in general they exhibit the principal features of the Negro type, and although a considerable diversity prevails among the various sections of this nation, are, generally speaking, a fine race, and are capable of a high degree of civilization and intelligence, well disposed to trading, and great travellers— even the principal traders in Katsena being Wangarawa-and capable of political organization. Thus they have founded the powerful and flourishing kingdom of Melle, of which I shall say more farther on, and in more modern times in a certain degree that of Bambara. They were also the first who adopted Islam, and hence the steady propagators of Islamism, sending their missionaries down to the very shores of the Atlantic as far as Ashanti and Benin. I do not estimate this nation at less than from 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 for the Mandingoes form a very large and numerous race, comprising, first, the Azer, formerly occupying the whole tract of country from Wadan,

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inclusive, as far as Walata; the Aswanck or Swaninki (called Sebe by the Fuibe and Serracolets by the French) principally settled in Baghena and along the upper Senegal; the Bambara, " Bamanaos," at present the most powerful section of the whole race, but of ignoble origin, probably originating in an intermixture with the Tombo, and of less capacity and development than many of the other sections of this tribe; those of Bondu, a petty kingdom to the south of the Senegal; the inhabitants of Kaarta; Bambuk, another kingdom; the Juli or Dhiuli on the upper Niger, and its eastern branches in Miniana Wassulo, trading principally in the white Kolanut; the Wangara, properly so called, that is to say, the inhabitants of that zone of Mandingo states which stretches from the seats of the Juli eastwards to Bargu, through Kong and Sansanne Mangho, districts very important for industry and the trade in gold; the Susu, formerly settled more to the north, and very powerful, at present greatly weakened and settled along the Scarries about the town of Kambia, where they have recently received a severe chastisement at the hands of the English; the Kru or Kroo, so important for the navigation along those shores. The Timmani do not belong fully to this group, but have lately been shown to have some affinity with the Kafirs.

Fulbe. Next to the Mandingoes or Wangara I mention the very remarkable tribe of the Fulbe, called Fula on the coast near Sierra Leone, Fellani by the Hausa people, Tellati by the Kanuri, and Fullan by the Arabs. The question as to the origin of this tribe is very difficult. Fulbe families are even settled in Tawat, whether from origin or in consequence of the pilgrimage of one of the mighty kings of the fourteenth or sixteenth century, I do not know. They were settled from ancient times on the middle course of the Senegal, and are mentioned here in the beginning of the sixteenth century, not by Leo, but by De Barrors and by the author of the history of Songhay. They began to assume great historical importance and to extend their conquests over the neighboring countries eastward with the ruin of the kingdom of Songhay; but as peaceable settlers they appear as far east as Bagirim as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century. Their great political rising in the beginning of this century dates from the year 1803. They thus conquered all the Hausa states and pushed on far southward beyond the Benuwi, carrying Islamism and Mohammedan civilization towards the Equator. The Fulbe evince great intelligence, but do not exhibit much industry or disposition for trading, and in all their proceedings a want of strong political organization is remarkable. From origin they were inclinel to nomadic habits as cattle-breeders, and have absorbed several other tribes, such as the Sissilbe or Syllebawa, and the Zoghoran or Zoramawa-the latter being more industrial and inclined to trading. On account of this intermixture, the greatest diversity of type and colour is observable among the Fulbe. I estimate the whole of this tribe at about the same number as the Mandingoes; but, although the territories over which they extended are by far Travels and Discoveries,' vol. iv. p. 602. Ib., vol. iv.

* See my

pp. 146-175.