Berry — The Sierra Leone Cmmihals. 23 



The iloors who were left hehind adopted the religion of their Ai-abiau con- 

 querors ; and it was by way of the Moorish tribes settled along the Atlantic 

 coast that Islamism penetrated to the country of the blacks in the ninth 

 century, making its headquarters first at Oualata, and afterwards emigrating 

 to Timbuctoo, which became the metropolis of the language of the Koran and 

 the Arabian sciences, in its'progress breeding a race of sectarian fanatics in 

 whose veins runs the mixed blood of the white and negro races. Of such 

 origins spring the FuUa people, who are now bigoted and devoted adherents to 

 their religion, as are all people sprung from north African stock. 



Owing probably to its proximity to the salt-mines of Tregazza, the first 

 home of the people migrating along the Atlantic coast was in the Adrar — the 

 land extending to the north of Senegal, which takes its name from a Fulla 

 tribe called Senhadja. The Tarik says " the Fullas are nations of the land of 

 Tischit." The Mooi-s of the later migrations pushed the Fullas fiu'ther south 

 before them into the country of the blacks, where they intermarried with the 

 negroes, throwing off tribes of mixed origin such as the Jolofi', the Mandigoe, 

 and Susu, who are black, but with Caucasian features. The Fullas, however, 

 did not all get mixed; there is to the present day a pure race, preserving their 

 yellow, or brown, complexions ; these are the nomad cattle-rearers, and in 

 addition to their purity of blood they have kept one thing more — a secret 

 language which is used amongst themselves, and is passed down only in the 

 pure FuUa blood. If a Fulla man or woman marries into the mixed people, 

 or anybody not of pure Fulla blood, he may not teach his children the Fulla 

 tribal speech. This secret speech is probably a remnant of the old Libyan 

 language, or perhaps the primitive Mediterranean language, which was the 

 speech of pre-Aryan Europe. This is not the speech the Fulla uses as an 

 every-day language, or in the presence of strangers ; it is only used among 

 their own people ; and it is not imderstood by Mandingoes or Susu, who speak 

 dialects of what is ordinarily known as the Fulla language — a speech full of 

 strange remnants and the puzzle of philologists. 



In the present day, from the Atlantic north of Senegal and Lake Chad to 

 Abyssinia, there exists a Caucasian race — Hamites and Semites : south of this 

 stretches a great mixed zone right across Africa, which may be racially and 

 linguistically divided into three groups. From the Senegal east to about 

 25° the land is inhabited by the Soudanese and Guinea negroes; further 

 east to 35"" of longitude, there are the Bed Men or NUotic negroes ; beyond 

 these to the coast, the Abyssinian and Ethiopian group; and south of this 

 great zone come the Bantu. 



Still pressed in the rear, these Libyan-speaking people penetrated the 

 negro zone, which then extended further north, and moved neai'ly across 



B.I. A. PROC, VOL. XSX., SECT C. [4] 



