SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. Ill 



recent years, but the industries that made a centre like Kano famous 

 are still carried on. It does not need half an eye to see, though, that 

 it cannot be long before the weaving industry of Kano, for instance, 

 will be destroyed by the importation of cheap cottons from the 

 Manchester looms. All Hausaland is now, in adaptation to changed 

 circumstances, becoming a great cotton-growing centre, furnishing the 

 raw material for the aforesaid Manchester looms to work on. Kano 

 is the great market of Hausaland and is the destination of caravans 

 from all points of the compass. The tanned goat skins worked at 

 Kano are the " Morocco " leather of commerce. About 300,000 of 

 these are said to be exported annually to Morocco and other parts of 

 the north, and thence to Europe. Other exports from Kano to 

 Europe include ivory and feathers. Cloth is woven by means of hand- 

 worked looms, in strips from three to four inches wide, several of 

 which are sewn together to form a piece. 



8. FOOD, DRESS, ETC. 



The Hausa is a man of wonderful strength, and he is proud of it. 

 All the races of Africa exhibit a wonderful power of endurance, but 

 even among them the Hausa is phenomenal. This fact he attributes 

 to his feeding chiefly on the kus-kus or guinea corn. Butter and 

 milk are largely consumed, the latter being preferred in the condition 

 known as " sour ". Unlike many African nations the Hausas eat 

 flesh. They are great consumers of the kola-nut, the seed of the 

 Herculia Acuminata, which is very rich in alkaloids and is a great 

 sustainer of energy. It is an important article of commerce. Tobacco 

 is used chiefly in the form of snuff, though the pipe is slowly coming 

 into favour. Like other Muslim nations the Hausas are total 

 abstainers from alcoholic beverages. In consequence of this absti- 

 nence for generations the Hausa constitution lias become so sus- 

 ceptible to the toxic action of alcohol that I have known cases in 

 which Christianised Hausa descendants have ruined themselves, body 

 and soul, by drinking even moderately. 



The dress of Hausaland consists, in the case of men, of a large 



