Chap. LXVI. POLITICAL CONDITION OF SONGHAY. 425 
yet been able to ascertain. This prison could not 
fail to become of great importance as the dissensions 
and feuds in the royal family increased ; and there 
appears to be no doubt that at times it was quite 
full of royal prisoners, and in this respect, as well as 
on account of the various assassinations which oc- 
curred there, fully corresponded with the character 
of the Tower in the middle ages. There is no doubt 
that polygamy, with its consequent intrigues in the 
harfm, was the chief cause of the speedy decline of 
the Songhay empire from the high position it had 
attained under the rule of Sonni 'AH and Haj Mo- 
hammed A'skia. The large number of ambitious 
children that A'skia Daiid, the most peaceful of the 
Songhay rulers, left behind him, seems especially to 
have contributed in a great measure to this speedy 
decline ; but the example had been set by that ruler 
himself, who, having no other claims to the royal 
dignity than his talent and energy, revolted against 
his liege lord, whom he conquered and supplanted, 
but had himself to endure the misfortune of being 
persecuted, and finally dethroned in his old age, by 
his own son Miisa. 
On the subject of the manners and customs and 
the state of society in Songhay during its period of 
power, we find but little in the short extracts which 
I was able to make from the history of A'hmed Baba ; 
still a few hints as to some remarkable usages are to 
be gleaned from them. Islam, as we have seen, had 
been adopted by the royal family at the beginning of 
