420 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chat. LXVI. 
Proceeding then westward from Bal and Tim- 
buktu, we come to the very important province of 
Kiirmina, with the capital Tindirma, which very 
often served as a residence for the king himself, and 
became the chosen seat of A'skia Daiid. The im- 
portance of the province of Kiirmina seems to have 
been based, not merely upon its military strength 
and populousness, but upon the circumstance of its 
having to supply Songhay Proper, together with its 
two large towns of Gagho and Kiikia, with grain ; and 
it is evidently on this account, that the governor of 
that province is on one occasion called the store- 
keeper and provider of the king.* South-west from 
the province of Kiirmina, there were two provinces 
Dirma f and Bara, the exact boundaries of which 
it is difficult to determine ; except that we know that 
Bara must have lain rather along the south-easterly 
branch of the river ; while Dirma, having probably 
derived this name from the town of Dire, is most 
likely to be sought for on the north-westerly branch, 
although Caillie places Diriman, as he calls it, south 
of the river. The province or district of Shaa J may 
probably be identical with the district round the im- 
* Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, p. 541 : — " Then he 
made Kishya fereng of Kurmina, and gave him the office of 
mezr'a ^j)-*' 
f It is not improbable that Dirma was originally the name or 
title of the governor of Dire, as Balma was that of the governor 
of Bal, and that it was in after times conferred upon the province 
of which he was the ruler. Caillie, vol. ii. p. 29. 
% Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, p. 544. 
