III.] THE AFRICAN NEGRO: I. SUDANESE. 65 



of intercourse throughout Sudan from Lake Chad to and beyond 

 the Niger, and is daily acquiring even greater preponderance 

 amongst all the settled and trading populations of these regions. 



But though showing a marked preference for peaceful pur- 

 suits, the Hausas are by no means an effeminate people. Largely 

 enlisted in the British service, they have at all times shown fighting 

 qualities of a high order under their English officers, and a well- 

 earned tribute has been paid to their military prowess amongst 

 others by Sir George Goldie and Lieut. Vandeleur 1 . With the 

 Hausas on her side England need assuredly fear no rivals to her 

 beneficent sway over the teeming populations of the fertile plains 

 and plateaux of Central Sudan, which is on the whole perhaps 

 the most favoured land in Africa north of the equator. 



According to the national traditions, which go back to no very 

 remote period, the seven historical Hausa States 

 known as the "Hausa bokoy" ("the seven Hausas") origins? 

 take their name from the eponymous heroes Biram, 

 Daura* Gober, Kano, Rano, Katsena and Zegzeg, all said to be 

 sprung from the Deggaras, a Berber tribe settled to the north of 

 Munyo. From Biram, the original seat, the race and its language 

 spread to seven other provinces Zanfara, Kebbi, Nupe (Nyffi], 

 Givari, Yauri, Yariba and Kororofa, which in contempt are called 



admitted that some of its features are extremely puzzling. The question cannot 

 here be discussed, but I think further research will show that its affinities are 

 neither with the Semitic nor with the Hamitic, at least directly, but that Hausa 

 is fundamentally a Sudanese Negro language greatly modified by Tibu in- 

 fluences, that in fact it is an outlying member of Nachtigal's Teda-Daza 

 linguistic group. Some light may be thrown on the subject by the studies 

 of Dr G. A. Krause, who, however, starts with the curious and embarrassing 

 theory that Hausa is a combination of two Bantu dialects welded together by 

 people speaking a Hamitic language! It may be incidentally mentioned that 

 Mr Robinson has been instrumental in establishing a Hausa Association "for 

 the purpose of promoting the study of the Hausa language and people" (1891). 

 1 Campaigning on the Upper Nile and Niger, by Lt Seymour Vandeleur, 

 with an Introduction by Sir George Goldie, 1898. "In camp," writes Lt Van- 

 deleur, "their conduct was exemplary, while pillaging and ill-treatment of the 

 natives were unknown. As to their fighting qualities, it is enough to say that, 

 little over 500 strong (on the Bida expedition of 1897), they withstood for two 

 days -25,000 or 30,000 of the enemy; that, former slaves of the Fulahs, they 

 defeated their dreaded masters," &c. 



K. 5 



