June 22, 1857.] IIEWETT ON THE JOLLOFFS OF WEST AFRICA. 513 



2. On the Jolloffs of West Africa. By Lieut. J. F. Napier Hewett, 

 72nd Highlanders. 



During my sojourn in the British colony of Bathurst, on the river Gambia, 

 Western Africa, which is chiefly inhabited by Jolloffs, I enjoyed especially 

 favourable opportunities of observing the manners and customs of this people, 

 which so much interested me that I determined to make an excursion into 

 their country. 



With this intention I started from Fort Bullen, on the N. bank of the 

 river, passed the town of Yassaou, situated in the district ceded to Britain by 

 the King of Barra, and entering the adjacent country of Barra, inhabited by 

 Mandingoes, travelled some miles until I arrived at a walled but ruined town 

 (Whydah), which, having fallen under the displeasure of Demba Sego, the 

 warlike king of the country, had been by him destroyed. 



_ Soon afterwards I reached Berending, the capital, and the king having pro- 

 vided me with horses, accompanied by one of his sons, I crossed the border, 

 and, passing several towns and villages, came to Bakandik. 



Here I made another stage, and proceeding arrived at length in the Jolloff 

 country, Saulaem, and shortly afterwards at Woioutaou, probably about midway 

 between the French settlements at St. Louis, Senegal, and the British colony 

 on the Gambia ; but, as I possessed no instruments and took no observations, I 

 can only speak from opinion, and am unable to assign the particular locality of 

 any of the towns ; and, as the vicissitudes of military life have caused the loss, 

 both of my journal and of the rough map I drew out, I cannot speak with much 

 certainty ; but the greater part of the paper now submitted was compiled on 

 the spot from that journal. 



The country bordering on the north bank of the river Senegal is inhabited by 

 wandering Arabs, Moors of Ludamar, and within the inclosure between that river 

 and the Gambia principally by a race of Mahomedan blacks, who speak an Arabic 

 dialect. They are called Jolloffs ; are one of the most powerful and extensive of 

 the north-western tribes ; and are a fine-looking, intelligent, handsome race of 

 people, as unlike the American and West Indian negro of every-day life as the 

 Englishman of the present age is like his forefather, the rude woad-stained 

 Briton. 



The features of the men of this race being devoid of the slightest trace of 

 the negro cast of countenance, and being regular and well-formed, are very 

 comely — so much so, that I have seen Jolloffs whose physiognomy, if white, or 

 merely swarthy, instead of black, jet black, would be esteemed models of manly 

 beauty. 



They are all of tall, symmetrical stature, having a dignified, sedate presence, 

 and do not possess the negro characteristics of large hands and unwieldy feet, 

 but remarkably the reverse. 



Their notable peculiarity is their hair, which appears to be of greater length 

 than the wool of most negroes, and is twisted and tortured into little cylindrical 

 ringlets about the thickness of three straws, and from five to six inches in 

 length. 



Hence it might be imagined they are Arabs, but, unlike that race, they 

 live a settled life, dwell in established towns, cultivate lands, feed flocks, and 

 engage in a regular system of traffic. 



Taking into consideration their religion, the length of their hair, their other 

 physical characteristics, and the similarity of these to those of the Arabs and 

 the most stalwart tribes of the Hindostan peninsula, I am of opinion that the 

 Jolloff race cannot be classed with the negi'o family, but pertain rather to the 

 Caucasian, and must have sprung from an Arab horde that has abandoned a 

 wandering life. Yet, in the fir^t place, it must be remembered that the Jolloffs 



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