Chap. XXIV. 
ORIGIN OF HA'USA. 
71 
grammar. What Bello says may be correct in a cer- 
tain sense with regard to the population of Kano, 
which indeed seems to consist, for the greater part, of 
Bornu elements, though in course of time the people 
have adopted the Hausa language; and this may be 
the case also with other provinces, the original popu- 
lation having been more nearly related to the Manga- 
Bornu stock. The name " Bawu," which occurs in 
the mythical genealogy of the Hausa people as that 
of the ancestor of most of the Hausa states, can 
hardly be supposed to be a mere personification repre- 
senting the state of slavery in which the nation for- 
merly existed ; the name for slave in the Hausa lan- 
guage is bawa, not bawu. It is, however, remarkable 
that this personage is said to be the son of Karbagari, 
whose name evidently implies " the taking of a town," 
and might be derived from the capture of the town 
of Biram, which is universally represented as • the 
oldest seat of the Hausa people, a tradition which 
is attested by a peculiar usage even at the present day. 
This town of Biram is situated between Kano and 
Khadeja, and is often called " Biram-ta-ghabbes," in 
order to distinguish it from a more westerly town of 
the same name. Biram, the personification of this 
town, is said to have been, by his grandson, Bawu, 
(the son of Karbagari), the progenitor of the six other 
Hausa states (likewise personified) : viz. Katsena and 
Zegzeg, who are represented as twins ; Kano and Ran 6, 
another pair of twins ; Gober and Daura. However, it 
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