Chap. LXVI. INTERIOR CONDITION OF SONGHAY. 417 
vain, that we here look either for a divan of twelve 
great officers, forming a powerful and highly in- 
fluential aristocracy, or that eclectic form of choosing 
a successor, both of which we find in Bornu : nay, 
not even the office of a vizier meets our eye, as we 
peruse the tolerably rich annals of A'hmed Baba. 
We find, no doubt, powerful officers also in the 
Songhay empire, as must naturally be the case in a 
large kingdom ; but these appear to have been merely 
governors of provinces, whom the king installed or de- 
posed at his pleasure, and who exercised no influence 
upon the internal affairs of the kingdom, except when 
it was plunged into civil war. 
These governors bore generally the title of " farma," 
or " fereiig," a title which is evidently of Mandingo 
origin*, and was traditionally derived from the in- 
stitutions of the kingdom of Melle, while the native 
Songhay title of u koy " appears to be used only in 
order to denote officers of certain provinces, which 
originally were more intimately related to Songhay ; 
and in this respect it is a remarkable fact, that the 
governor of Timbuktu or Tumbutu, is constantly 
called Tumbutu koy, and is only once called Tum- 
butu-mangha.f Besides this province, those which we 
find mentioned in the report of A'hmed Baba are the 
following, going from east to west : — Dendi, or as it 
is now generally called Dendina, the country between 
* See Cooley, " Negroland," p. 75, n. 26. and p. 77, n. 28. 
f Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, vol. ix. p. 554. If 
there be no mistake, there was a "koy" as well as a "farma" in 
some of the provinces, such as Bara. 
VOL. IV. E E 
