152 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LV1I. 
A new epoch for this wide-spread tribe did not 
open till the beginning of this century, when, in the 
year 1802, Bawa the ruler of Gober summoned to his 
presence the sheikh 'Othman, together with the other 
chiefs of the tribe, and severely reprimanded them 
on account of the pretensions which they were begin- 
ning to put forward. It was then that 'Othman, 
who, being settled in the village Daghel, performed 
the office of imdm to his countrymen, and had be- 
gun to give them a new religious impulse, which 
raised them above their petty interests, filled with 
indignation at the manner in which he, the great 
Moslim, was treated by those pagans, was roused to 
the attempt of making himself and his tribe inde- 
pendent of the will of the native ruler of the coun- 
try, and having assembled his countrymen, who now 
conferred upon him the dignity and authority of a 
sheikh, raised the standard of revolt; but his proceed- 
ings, at least as far as regarded Gober and the capital 
Alkalawa, were far from proving successful at the 
beginning, he being vanquished in almost every en- 
counter: but the fanatical zeal of his followers, 
whom he continually inspired with fresh energy by 
his religious songs *, was so great that gradually he 
overcame all these obstacles, and at length succeeded 
in laying the foundation of a vast empire, being 
greatly assisted in his career by his brother 'Abd 
Allahi, who, although his senior, had been the first 
* I shall communicate his principal song, in Appendix III. 
