258 



NATURE 



[July lo, 1890 



Jolofs. — Although " Jolof " is a word very frequently used in 

 Bathurst, and most of the inhabitants speak that language, yet, 

 as a matter of fact, very few of the genuine race are to be found 

 in it. The habitat of the Jolofs is in the adjoining French colony 

 of Senegal. The Jolofs proper are stated to be a handsome 

 race ; they are proud, and exceedingly vain, claiming for them- 

 selves a very ancient descent. The women are inordinately fond 

 of gay apparel and personal adornments of every description. 

 They frequently pierce the ear along the entire edge with a 

 series of holes, so that this feature may be, as far as possible, 

 loaded with ornamentation. The wool is pulled out to its ex- 

 treme length and plaited into thin strips, which hang from the 

 head, giving a peculiar character to these natives. Of their 

 moral character report speaks very unfavourably, mendacity, 

 deceit, and licentiousness being prominent characteristics of this 

 people. In religion they are fervent Mohammedans ; they rarely 

 intermarry with any other race, but are extremely sensitive to 

 any mishap in this direction. The Jolof language is expressive, 

 and has received considerable attention from philologists, more 

 than one grammar having been published. Golberry, who gives 

 a vocabulary of the Jolof language, pertinently comments upon 

 the curious fact that in spite of the contiguity of the Jolofs to the 

 Moors, who adopt the Arabic system of numeration, the former 

 should have persistently adhered to the method of reckoning on 

 one hand only, instead of on both. It is a curious and perplex- 

 ing circumstance that the Mandingoes, who are an inland people, 

 and probably came into contact with more enlightened races at 

 a later period than the tribes nearer the coast, should be in ad- 

 vance of all the other races in this portion of West Africa in 

 their system of counting. The question whether this method 

 originated with the language, or has been acquired at a later 

 period of their history, must be left for philologists to settle. 

 The Mandingoes, however, have always been great traders, and 

 it is possible that their instincts taught them at an early stage 

 the advantages of a system based on ten fingers instead of five. 



Salum Salums. — These are neighbours of the Sereres, and 

 through intermarriage their language is a mixture of Jolof and 

 Serere. In religion they are partly Marabouts and Soninkees. 

 The former frequently take wives from the latter, but no Mara- 

 bout would give his daughter to a Soninkee unless to a king or 

 a prince, and that reluctantly. 



Lowbeys. — This race may be described as the gypsies of North- 

 West Africa. It is almost impossible to obtain any certain 

 information in regard to their history. They wander about 

 from place to place, but have no settled country. There can be 

 no doubt that they are practically the same race as the Foulahs, 

 though for some reason they have become detached from them. 

 Those seen by the Governor were decidely better looking than 

 the average Negro, resembling the Foulahs, though of a darker 

 complexion. They confine themselves almost exclusively to the 

 making of the various wooden utensils in use by natives generally, 

 and the manufacture of canoes. They settle temporarily with 

 any tribe but never intermarry with another race, thus preserving 

 the type of feature which obviously separates them from their 

 human surroundings. In religion most of them are pagans, 

 though a few profess Islamism. They have no laws of their own, 

 but are guided by those of the people with whom they are for 

 the time being located. In case of war happening, they very 

 sensibly remove at once to a district where there is peace. The 

 Foulahs and Toocalores, to whom allusion is made below, are 

 practically the same race. Little need be said of them, as the 

 iormer are a well-known race, and many travellers have noted 

 their unusual lightness of complexion. Dr. Goulsbury, in his 

 report en the Upper Gambia Expedition, gives a concise history 

 of this people. Their capital is Timbo in the Futa Jallon 

 country. The Toocalores reside principally in the Futa Toro 

 country in Senegal, but from having intermixed with other races 

 they are darker in colour. They are a warlike people, and at 

 times are troublesome to our neighbours the French. An 

 appendix to the report contains a vocabulary of common words 

 and expressions used in the Mandingo, Jolof, Serere, Jola, and 

 Foulah languages, all of which are spoken within a comparatively 

 small radius of the Gambia. " No one can fail to be struck with 

 the marked differences in the word forms of the various languages, 

 though Mr. Robert Cust, in his valuable work, ' The Modern 

 Languages of Africa,' classes all except the Foulah in one group, 

 which he styles the northern section of the Atlantic sub-group, 

 and which extends from the River Senegal to Cape Mount. It is 

 difficult, however, for any but a trained philologist to detect 

 wherein the relationship lies, or how such radical distinctions 



could exist and be preserved in the languages of races living in 

 close proximity to each other. The jolas especially offer a very 

 curious problem to the ethnologist ; it is not probable that they 

 were ever an interior race which has been pushed gradually by 

 stronger neighbours to the sea, and it is somewhat extraordinary 

 that they should have been able hitherto to withstand the power 

 of the conquering Mandingo, and to maintain their individuality. 

 It is true they have always been a savage and intractable people, 

 but in point of numbers their weakness would seem to mark 

 them out as an easy prey to the invaders. This, however, is far 

 from being the case, and there is but little of the Jola country in 

 the hands of strangers." 



SEEDLING SUGAR-CANES. 

 'X'HE Government of Barbadoes has issued a valuable Report 

 bearing on seedling sugar-canes. It records the results 

 obtained by Prof. J. B. Harrison and Mr. J. R. Bo veil on the 

 experimental fields at Dodds Reformatory in 1889. As the 

 subject is one of great importance to the cane industry, the 

 following extracts may be read with interest. We may note that 

 a paper describing the fruit of the sugar-cane was lately read 

 before the Linnean Society by Mr. D. Morris, and that seedling 

 canes are growing at Kew. 



" In our Report for 1888 we briefly alluded, for the purpose of 

 insuring priority, to the fact that we had succeeded in obtaining 

 seedlings of the sugar-cane. 



"That the sugar-cane could not produce fertile seeds has been 

 for many years regarded by botanical authorities as a proved 

 and accepted fact, whilst very many of the older planters here 

 believed that the canes could produce fertile seed. 



"Attention here was first strongly directed to this point in 

 1859 by the Hon. J. W. Parris, who succeeded, at his estate. 

 Highlands, in St. Thomas's parish, in rearing successfully self- 

 sown seedlings. . . . 



" Mr. Parris has recently stated to us that he finally succeeded 

 in planting four and a half acres with canes raised from these 

 original seedlings, and that he estimated their yield of sugar at 

 over four hogsheads to the acre. He, however, from certain 

 objectionable characteristics which arose in the canes, finally 

 abandoned their cultivation, and did not again turn his attention 

 to the subject. In order to test the truth of Mr. Parris's dis- 

 covery of cane seedlings, several persons here attempted to raise 

 them from the cane arrows. This was done successfully by 

 Mr. Carter, of Bridge Cot, and by Mr. J. Wiltshire Clarke, 

 neither of whom, however, appeared to have attached much 

 importance to their results. At another time Mr. T. Clarke, of 

 Cane Field, discovered cane seedlings growing from a fallen 

 cane arrow, but did not succeed in raising them, and Mr. E. S. 

 Sisnett found some cane seeds growing in Christ Church about 

 the year 1861 ; these were allowed to grow amongst canes that 

 were planted in the usual way, but as they were very small and 

 thin when they reached maturity they were destroyed. In this 

 last case the seeds appear to have come from the Bourbon canes. 

 Next we find that the late Mr. W. Drumm paid much attention 

 to this subject and wrote several letters to the Sugar Cane upon 

 it. He, however, stated to us in March 1884 that, whilst he 

 had repeatedly obtained cane seed, he had never succeeded in 

 raising canes from it, and that he believed the various instances 

 we have mentioned to be errors of observation. 



" At Dodds the cultivation of the different varieties of canes in 

 large numbers and side by side has placed us in a specially 

 favourable condition for examining into this question. In 

 January 1888, Mr. J. B. Pilgrim, one of the overseers at Dodds, 

 reported to us that in the neighbourhood of one of the experi- 

 mental fields he noticed that certain fine grasses were springing 

 up, and we found at intervals from then to the middle of March 

 similar seedlings. These were found not only on the surface of 

 the field, but also growing in the bottom of a somewhat deep 

 drain which had been recently dug. Much difficulty was experi- 

 enced in preserving these seedlings, as they were exceedingly 

 sensitive to the effects of exposure to the sun or wind. In 

 June 1888 the seedlings which had survived were transplanted, 

 giving us about 60 plants. Certain of them were dug up with 

 great care, and placed in water until the soil crumbled away from 

 their roots, and were carefully examined for any traces of cane 



NO. 1080, VOL. 42] 



