SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 113 



tion of seven illegitimate children, viz., Nupe, Ilorin, etc. This myth 

 seems to indicate some form of confederation between the States at 

 some early, perhaps prehistoric period. The indication is not con- 

 firmed by history. " The country of Hausa," says Sultan Bello, a 

 writer of last century, "consists of seven provinces, to each of which 

 a prince is appointed to superintend its affairs, and the inhabitants of 

 the whole speak one language. The central province of this kingdom 

 is Katsena ; the most extensive is Zaria ; the most warlike is Gober ; 

 and the most fertile is Kano." Kano was the first of the States to 

 play a leading role in Hausa history. Its first. king, Dauda, whose 

 coming Berbushay foretold, reigned about the close of the tenth cen- 

 tury. Islam was accepted by another of its kings, Yahya, about the 

 middle of the thirteenth century. In the second reign after his Kano 

 became embroiled with Zaria. It is on record that in the several 

 battles fought, the Kano soldiery used " iron caps ". Warriors of the 

 Hausa States are said to come out to battle still in shirts of mail, 

 which some people say are spoils of the Crusaders brought by Arab 

 merchants from Palestine. King Edris made his own gunpowder, 

 and the Almami Samodu, in his long struggle with the French, made 

 his own rifles and ammunition. There is, therefore, no absurdity in 

 supposing that these shirts of mail may quite possibly have been 

 home-made. In the reign of another Dauda, fifteenth king of Kano, 

 there appears to have been a rapprochement between Kano and 

 Bornou. So real was the entente cordiale then established that we 

 find Kalmana, king of Bornou, taking sanctuary at Kano from his 

 rebellious subjects in 1430. During the next reign a Kano field force 

 appears to have operated successfully in the southern provinces. A 

 seven-year-long campaign was undertaken, one result of which was 

 that one thousand slaves were sent up to Kano every month. About 

 the same time there was a rupture with Bornou. The result of the 

 war which followed was that "many towns were given to Bornou". 

 The king of Kano evidently had not the services of a Count Witte to 

 bluff his victorious enemy out of his due and stoutly refuse the cession 



of an inch of territory, or the payment of a copeck of indemnity. The 



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