CHAPTER XVI. 



THE SOUDANESE AND GUINEA NEGROES, AND THE ABYSSINIAN 



AND ETHIOPIC GROUPS. 



a. THE SOUDANESE NEGROES. 



THE Soudanese Negroes occupy a belt of Africa between Senegambia and the western watershed 

 of the Nile; the area includes most of the Niger Basin and the Atlantic coast-lands from 

 the Senegal River to Calabar. The boundaries, however, are not sharply defined. To the 

 south the Rio del Rey divides the Soudanese Negroes from the Bantu; but the former group 

 is represented by colonies in the backwoods of the Bantu region. To the north-east the 

 Soudanese Negroes gradually merge with the Hamitic races, and to the north they become 

 inextricably mixed with the Berber tribes of Senegal. Even on the southern slopes of the 

 Atlas Mountains in Morocco there is a wide-spread people known as the Haratin or Black 

 Berbers, which shows that the Negro influence has extended even north of the Sahara. 



THE MANDINGO, TIMNI, AND KRU. 



The Sarakole are interesting as the most northern members of the great tribe of 

 Maudingo, a race of Eastern origin, now spread over the region between the Senegal and 

 Liberia. The Mandingo are clearly 

 Negroes; they have a Negroid face, 

 flat broad nose, widely open nostrils, 

 high cheek-bones, and projecting jaws. 

 They are active, intelligent, and in- 

 dustrious; and, like the Haussa of the 

 Niger Basin, they have managed to 

 acquire commercial supremacy over 

 the other tribes. Again, like the 

 Haussa, they were once also politi- 

 cally predominant, but have lost their 

 power owing to Fulah inroads; locally, 

 however, they still retain their former 

 position as, for instance, among the 

 Serers of Senegal, where the chief 

 families are all Mandingan. 



As an instance of Mandingan 

 intelligence may be cited the fact 

 that the Vei language, which belongs 

 to this group, has a written alphabet 

 comprising over 200 characters; it has 

 been claimed that this script was in- 

 vented in the present century, but the 



recent inquiries of Delafosse show that j, ho(0 blj Vl . At(/r idye. 



it is at least several centuries older. THE MANDINGAN "BALENJEH," OR NATIVE PIANO. 



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