Chap. LXVL 
THE RU'MA. 
431 
tensive and rich country, from whence to procure 
himself an unlimited supply of gold, to the surprise 
of all the potentates of Europe. It is, moreover, 
a very remarkable circumstance, that the soldiery 
by means of which Mulay Hamed subdued that far- 
distant kingdom, and who were left as a garrison in 
the conquered towns, intermarrying with the females 
of the country, in the same way as the Portuguese 
did in India, managed to rule those extensive re- 
gions by themselves, even long after they had ceased 
to acknowledge the supremacy of the Emperor of 
Morocco, whose soldiers these Ruma originally had 
been, Ruma or Erma being the plural form of 
Kami, "shooter" or "sharpshooter;" and although 
they appear never to have formed a compact body 
ruled by a single individual, but rather a number of 
small aristocratic communities, the Ruma in Tim- 
buktu having scarcely any connection with those in 
Baghena, nay, probably not even with those in 
Bamba and Gagho, yet superior discipline enabled 
them to keep their place. The nationality of these 
Ruma puzzled me a long time, while I was collecting 
information on these regions in the countries farther 
eastward; and they have lately attracted the attention 
of the French traveller Raffenel*, during his journey 
to Kaarta, when he learnt so much about a people, 
whom he calls "Arama," that he supposed them to be 
* See Raffenel, Nouveau Voyage dans le pays des Negres (made 
in 1847), Paris, 1856, vol, ii. p. 349, et seq.; the Vocabulary, ibid, 
p. 399, et seq. 
