III.] THE AFRICAN NEGRO: I. SUDANESE. 6l 



Sonrhay Empire and the Hausa States ; such are the still inde- 

 pendent or at least autonomous kingdoms of Bornu with Kanem 

 and Baghirmi, and these jointly cover the whole of Central Sudan 

 as above defined. 



Sonrhay s\ How completely the tribe 2 has merged in the 

 people" may be inferred from the mere statement that, although 

 no longer an independent nation 2 , the Negroid Sonrhays form 

 a single ethnical group of about two million souls, 

 all of one speech and one religion, and all dis- Dom3ii* y 

 tinguished by somewhat uniform physical and 

 mental characters. This territory lies mainly about the border- 

 lands between Sudan and the Sahara, stretching from Timbuktu 

 east to the Asben oasis and along both banks of the Niger from 

 Lake Debo round to the Sokoto confluence, and also at some 

 points reaching as far as the Hombori hills within the great bend 

 of the Niger. 



Here they are found in the closest connection with the Ireghe- 

 naten ("mixed") Tuaregs, and elsewhere with other Tuaregs, 

 and with Arabs, Fulahs or Hausas 3 , so that exclusively Sonrhay 

 communities are now somewhat rare. But the bulk of the race is 

 still concentrated in Gurma and in the district between Gogo and 

 Timbuktu, the two chief cities of the old Sonrhay empire. 



They are a distinctly Negroid people, presenting various 

 shades of intermixture with the surrounding Hamites 



Sonrhay 



and Semites, but generally of a very deep brown or Type and 

 blackish colour, with somewhat regular features and 

 that peculiar long, black, and ringletty hair, which is so charac- 

 teristic of Negro and Caucasic blends, as seen amongst the 



1 Also Songhay, gh and rh being interchangeable throughout North Africa ; 

 Ghat and Rhat, Ghadames and Rhadames, &c. In the mouth of an Arab the 

 sound is that of the guttural ghain, which is pronounced by the Berbers and 



Negroes somewhat like the Northumberland burr, hence usually transliterated 

 by rh in non-Semitic words. 



2 It should be noticed that these terms are throughout used as strictly de- 

 fined in Etli. Ch. I. 



3 Earth's account of Wulu (iv. p. 299), " inhabited by Tawarek slaves, who 

 are trilingues, speaking Temashight as well as Songhay and Fulfulde " is at 

 present generally applicable, mutatis mutandis, to most of the Sonrhay settle- 

 ments. 



