114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



king of that time is reported to have been the first to have camels, 

 and to drink wine, in Hausaland. In the reign of the next king, 

 Yakoub (1402-1422), there was an exodus of Fulani from Mel la, another 

 Sudanese state, to Hausaland. Land was given them in Kano, and 

 some other States. With their characteristic treachery, the Fulani 

 had begun the peaceful invasion of a country on which they had their 

 eye. The name Fulani is synonymous in Africa with the basest 

 treachery. A Fulani will invite to his house, and receive with every 

 mark of friendship, the man whose destruction he has planned. He 

 will seat him on his best rug or hide over the pit he has dug for him, 

 and into which he intends him to fall. Among all the nations, from 

 the Sudan to Sierra Leone, you find them settling in small communi- 

 ties, paying tribute to the rulers. But for the Pax Britannica many 

 another nation would have found out, to its cost, what Hausa has 

 found, that to entertain the Fulani is to nurse a viper. Yakoub's 

 reign witnessed a great revival in trade and increase in the number of 

 foreign caravans, as well as some immigration of Arabs and Berbers. 

 Mohammed Rimpa, the next king, 1422-1459, was one of the most 

 famous, if not actually the most famous, of the rulers of Kano, and 

 did much to improve the country. Learned men are reported to have 

 resorted much to Kano in his day ; mosques were built, and " religion 

 became strong ". He first observed the fast of Ramadan. " He gave 

 titles to his eunuchs, and shut up his women after the manner of the 

 East." He built the walls of Kano, with their seven gates, and also a 

 palace. He did something towards systematising administration, for 

 it is on record that he divided Kano into nine provinces, over each of 

 which he appointed a viceroy. The next reign was wasted in a 

 disastrous war with Bornou, resulting in the dethronement of the 

 king of Kano, and the installation of his victorious enemy's slave in 

 his place. Ahmodu Kesoke, son of the dethroned king, somehow 

 regained the throne of his fathers, and " conquered the four corners of 

 Hausa, east and west, and north and south," and put to flight the 

 armies of Bornou which marched against him. His reign witnessed 

 another revival of learning and flocking of " Mallamx " (professors or 



