ETHNOLOGY OF THE PRESENT DAY. 241 



complexion more inclining to brown. The Bornouese call themselves 

 Kanowry ; and the rude mountaineers, who are still heathens, Bedies. 

 From descriptions of this nation, we learn that they, particularly the 

 Mohammedan portion, are peaceable, quiet, timid, and polite, but revci j;e- 

 ful withal. A certain melancholy is said to be perceptible in their looks. 

 The cultivation of grain is the principal means of support ; rearing 

 cattle is followed to a great extent by the immigrated Arabs, who are here 

 called Sliouas. Few of the industrial arts are practised in this country, 

 and hence the Bornouese are obliged to look to commerce with foreign 

 lands as the means of obtaining many articles considered necessary. 

 Tattooing and painting the body blue are still in use among the Bornouese. 

 Bornou possesses large towns, surrounded by walls forty feet in height and 

 twenty thick, and the houses are pretty and roomy ; in the country, how- 

 ever, they have only straw and mud huts. Bornou is under an absolute 

 elective prince. The chief power rests, nevertheless, in the hands of the 

 grandees, who form the court of the Sultan. Their government is based 

 upon the Mosaic code, and is said to be just and tolerably mild. The 

 Bornou girls {pi. 26, Jig. 8) wear petticoats reaching below the knee, and 

 over them blue garments which leave the arms and left breast free. Their 

 hair hangs down on both sides in short braids, ornamented with pearls, and 

 a red frontlet girds the temples, another riband being attached to it, which 

 lies across the crown of the head. On the feet they wear sandals. 



In the southern section of the kingdom of Houssa, on both sides of the 

 Quorra Niger, there are tribes who differ from the Gouberies in language 

 and manners. Among them are the Eyeos (Ayos, Oyos, Okyous), whose 

 language is the national tongue of the kingdom of Jarriba or Eyeo, and of 

 the province of Borgou or Borgho, which is divided into many small states. 

 Clapperton says of the natives of Jarriba, that they have less characteristic 

 negro features than any other nation of Africa ; the lips are not so thick 

 and the nose is somewhat aquiline. He describes the King of Boussa 

 {pi. 26, fig. 9) as a handsome man, and our representation appears to 

 corroborate this account. His overcoat is green with red stripes, and 

 worked with arabesques. Turban, sash, and the wide trowsers are scarlet; 

 the boots yellow. Lander was astonished at the regularity of the features, 

 the elegance of the form, and the great dignity in the manners of the black 

 king of Kiama. In Wawa, the men are tall and well formed. The greater 

 portion of these tribes are still heathens, but human sacrifices are not 

 offered. Lizards, crocodiles, tortoises, boa constrictors, (fee, are their 

 fetishes. The Eyeos trace back their origin to Bornou, and assert that 

 their country was formerly inhabited by the Cumbries, who, at the time of 

 their immigration, were driven out of Bornou into the mountains and 

 forests. On the western shore of the lower Quorra, a short distance above 

 its junction with the Tshadda, is the district of the Ibbedos (Kahunda). 



To the east of Bornou lies the country of Mohba {Bargou, Dar Eseleh, 

 Wadai, or Wadey), whose inhabitants are not very dusky black, and among 

 whom the negro type is in some cases more, in others less observed, 

 Islamism is their religion, and instruction is given in reading and writing 



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