THE BLACK PROPHET. 295 



palm wine and millet beer were largely consumed : 

 the women did not veil their faces nor even their 

 bosoms ; immodest dances were performed to the pro- 

 fane music of the drum : learned men gained a liveli- 

 hood by writing charms : the code of the Koran was 

 often supplanted by the old customary laws. Danfodio 

 sent letters to tbe great kings of Timbuctoo, Haoussa, 

 and Bornou, commanding them to reform their own 

 lives and tbose of their subjects, or he would chastise 

 them in the name of God. They received these in- 

 structions from an unknown man, as the King of Kings 

 received the letter of Mahomet, and their fate re- 

 sembled his. Danfodio united the Foula tribes into 

 an army, which he inspired with his own spirit. 

 Thirsting for plunder and paradise, the Foulas swept 

 over the Soudan ; they marched into battle with 

 shouts of frenzied joy, singing hymns and waving their 

 green flags, on which texts of the Koran were em- 

 broidered in letters of gold. The empire which they 

 established at the beginning of this century is now 

 crumbling away : but the fire is still burning on the 

 frontiers. Wherever the Foulas are settled in the 

 neighbourhood of pagan tribes they are extending 

 their power ; and although the immediate effects are 

 disastrous, villages being laid in ashes, men slaughtered 

 by thousands, women and children sold as slaves, yet 

 in the end these crusades are productive of good : the 

 villages are converted into towns ; a new land is 

 brought within the sphere of commercial and religious 

 intercourse, and is added to the Asiatic world. 



The phenomenon of a religious Tamerlane has been 

 repeated more than once in Central Africa. The last 

 example was that of Oumar the Pilgrim, whose capital 

 was Segou, and whose conquests extended from Timbuc- 

 tooto the Senegal, where he came into contact with French 



