72 
TRAVELS W AFRICA. 
Chap. XXIV. 
seems almost universally acknowledged that of all 
these children Daura was the eldest.* 
More important in a historical point of view, and 
confirming what has been said above, appears to be 
the statement that the mother of these children be- 
longed to the Deggara or Diggera, a Berber tribe at 
present established to the north of Miiniyo, and once 
very powerful. Biram, Daura, Gober, Kan6, Kano, Ka- 
tsena, and Ze^zeg, are the well-known original seven 
Hausa states, the " Hausa bokoy " (the seven Hausa), 
while seven other provinces or countries, in which the 
Hausa language has spread to a great extent, although 
it is not the language of the aboriginal inhabitants, 
are called jocosely " banza bokoy " (the upstart, or 
illegitimate) ; these are Zanfara, Kebbi, Niipe or 
Nyffi, Gwari, Yauri, Yoruba or Yariba, and Kororofa. 
As for the six children of Bawu, they are said to 
have had each his share assigned to him by his 
father in the following way: Gober was appointed the 
" serki-n-yaki " (the war-chief), in order to defend his 
brethren, Kan6 and Rano being made " saraki-n- 
baba " (the ministers of the " marina," that peculiar 
* It is also a very remarkable fact, that Daura claims the glory of 
having had an apostle of its own, Mohammed 'Ali el Baghdadi ; and 
with this fact the circumstance, that the holy place which I noticed 
on my tour from Tin-tellust to A'gades is called by some " msid 
Sidi Baghdadi," may probably be connected. Whether Daura be 
identical with El Bekri's Daur, or Daw, is a question of some 
importance, since, if it really be so, it would appear to have been 
a considerable place at a very early period ; but I prefer not to 
enter here upon the slippery ground of comparative geography. 
