70 
TRAVELS m AFRICA. 
Chap. XXIV. 
very ancient times, but that it settled in the country 
at a comparatively recent date. As to one of the 
associated states, and the most prominent and noble 
amongst them (I mean G6ber), we know positively 
that in ancient times it occupied tracts situated much 
further north*; and I have been assured that the 
name Hausa also proceeded from the same quarter — 
an opinion which seems to be confirmed by the affinity 
of that language with the Temashight.f Whether the 
name was originally identical with the word " A'usa," 
which, as we shall see, is used by the Western Tawarek 
and the people of Timbuktu to denote the country on 
this the northern side of the Great River, in opposi- 
tion to " Gurma," the country on its southern side, I 
am unable to say. 
Sultan Bello's statement, that the Hausa people ori- 
ginated from a Bornu slave, deserves very little credit. 
It is to be considered as merely expressive of his con- 
tempt for the effeminate manners of the Hausa people 
in his time. But their language, though it has a few 
words in common with the Kanuri, is evidently quite 
distinct from it, as well in its vocabulary as in its 
* See above, Vol. I. Ch. XV. 
•f There is evidently some relation between the Hausa, the 
Berber, and the Coptic languages, not in the general vocabu- 
laries, but chiefly in the demonstratives, such as " me," " hakka," 
and the prepositions, such as " na," " da," " ga," " daga," " gare." 
See the excellent analysis of the Berber language by Newman, in 
Zeitschrift fur Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. vii. a. 1845, pp. 268. 
277, 278 ; (on the feminine forms " ita," " ta,") pp. 282. 291. 296. 
Many more specimens, however, may now be added. 
