49 



But lie repulsed them ; and hence, being ashamed to return to their 

 own country with the stigma of defeat, they settled at Zhibu, on the 

 confines of Kororoofa, where they have been permitted to remain on 

 condition of paying a yearly tribute to the monarch of the latter place. 

 Kororoofa being at the other side of the river from Sakatu, it shews 

 likewise the fallacy of what has hitherto been supposed to be a fact, 

 that the Filatahs had a superstition against crossing the water. 



Yet in spite of this native ferocity, amongst the Filatah people of 

 Zhibu, of Gandiko, and of Hamarruah more especially, there is an 

 evidence of superiority both in physique, and of their position in indus- 

 trial arts, far above what is seen amongst the negroes on the slave coast. 

 The views which are alluded to in Latham's Natural History of Man, 

 with reference to the " coincidence between the negro type, in the way 

 of physical conformation, and the geographical condition of a fluviatile 

 low land," may be illustrated at every kingdom of an ascent \x\> these 

 streams. The Filatahs of Zhibu, who are a negro race, are subject to 

 the Sultan of Kororoofa, who resides at its capital, Wukari, and I be- 

 hove that many Moslem-professing nations of this stamp, into Avhom 

 Mahommedanism has been hammered ban gre mal gre, are held in 

 what one of our ancient reformers would have called a " Kakodoxy," 

 which may be defined a mingling of Mahommedanism and Paganism, 

 and therefore more accessible to the teachings of the true faith. Those 

 who have read Lieutenant Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, may remem- 

 ber he has said that these tribes professing Moslemism, as the 

 Bedouins of the desert, who do not make a pilgrimage to the shrine of 

 the prophet at Mecca, are not so obstinate in their animosity to the 

 " Christian dogs." And the superiority of the Filatahs up the Tshadda- 

 Binue is also evident from the fact of a large extent of their ground 

 being cultivated for the growth of Indian and Dower corn, pumpkins, 

 ochroes, and beans ; from their taking care of a quantity of excellent 

 horses of the Arabian breed ; from their having large herds of cattle ; 

 from their working brass, copper, tin, and lead into fanciful ornaments ; 

 from their ingenuity in fabricating arrows, javelins, and swords ; from 

 their wearing more clothing than the natives on the coast ; and from their 

 streets and houses being cleaner. The Mallems (or learned men), who 

 officiate as high priests, all wear Houssa tobcs, generally of blue or 

 white (as tobes of the pattern shewn here are only worn by the ruling 

 men), that reach from the neck to the knees, and slip over the shoul- 

 ders like a poncho ; whilst a turban, white or blue, covers the head, 

 one fold of it being brought across the mouth and nose, which gives its 

 wearer a very ghostly look. Yet these men would set a very good 



