Chap. LVII. DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES. 
147 
period of the A'skia, that is to say, in the six- 
teenth century of our era, quite distinct from the 
community of the Fiilbe or Fellani, as a tribe by 
themselves, settled to the S.E. of the Great River, 
where it enters the province of Masina * ; and it was 
this tribe which, having been continually persecuted 
by the Songhay during the height of their sway, at a 
later period, when that empire had been laid pros- 
trate by the musketeers of Morocco, contributed the 
most to its ruin, and conquered great part of it, 
particularly the most fertile provinces, such as Bar a 
and Karmina. 
Nearly the same character distinguishes the tribe 
of the Laiibe on the Senegal, who, in general, at 
the present time have been reduced to the rank of 
carpenters, but, nevertheless, at a former period 
evidently constituted a distinct tribe. f It is these 
degraded tribes — viz. besides those above mentioned, 
the Mabube or Mabe, considered in general as wea- 
vers ; the Gergasabe, or shoemakers ; the Waiiube, 
or tailors ; the Wambaibe, or singing men ; the 
Waulube, or beggars, — who impart to the community 
* A'hmed Baba in J. L. O. S. pp. 550, 555, and elsewhere. 
f M. Eichwaldt, from the account given of them by various 
French travellers, makes, as to this tribe, the following inter- 
esting statement, regarding them as gipsies: — "En effet, les 
ethnographes considerent habituellement les Laobes comme une 
branche des Foulahs : mais ce fait n'est nullement demontre, et 
nous avons nous-memes connu des voyageurs qui affirmaient que 
les Laobes possedaient une langue nationale differente du Foulah." 
(Journal de la Societe Ethnologique, 1841, vol. i. p. 62.) 
L 2 
