SOCIETY OP THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 105 



at present at about ten millions. The people are generally acknow- 

 ledged to be peaceful and industrious. In common with the other 

 nations of the Sudan, especially those professing Islam, they give 

 evidences of an advance in civilisation and culture not generally ob- 

 served among the nations further south. This, however, does not 

 appear surprising seeing the countries of the Sudan were in touch with 

 the countries in the north of Africa from which civilisation and culture 

 and learning came to Europe. To go fully into this question would 

 involve too lengthy a discussion of the history of the Sudan and its 

 relations with the States of the North. As a general principle, how- 

 ever, it is likely to be accepted that places abutting on the world's 

 highways, whether they be sea-ports or places on caravan routes, 

 acquire a higher civilisation and a higher culture than places more re- 

 mote. The Sudan was a commercial highway, and it is, therefore, no 

 matter of surprise that its towns should have shown a greater advance 

 in culture than remoter regions. The inhabitants of these Sudanese 

 countries, in general, have always been well spoken of in ancient 

 literature. Thus we find the " Father of History " describing them as 

 "the tallest, the most beautiful and long-lived of the human race," 

 and the " Blind Bard of Thebes " celebrating them as " the most just 

 of men," " the favourites of the gods," " the blameless Ethiopians ". 

 The references to them in ancient literature, which are too many to be 

 mentioned within the time at my disposal, leave no room for doubt, 

 that in some period of hoary antiquity, the leading race of the 

 western world was a black race, and, further, that that black race 

 was the one inhabiting the Sudan, of which Hausaland forms a part. 

 Serious white writers of to-day consider it an open question, whether 

 in the matter of civilisation it was North Africa that gave the impulse 

 to the Sudan or the Sudan that gave the impulse to the north. Says 

 Lady Lugard (to whom belongs the credit of being about the only 

 writer who has not written foolishly on Africa or the African) : 

 " When the history of Negroland comes to be written in detail, it 

 may be found that the kingdoms lying to the eastern end of the 



Sudan were the home of races who inspired, rather than of races who 



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