80 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXIV. 
turies of our era, seems to have been the chief city of 
this part of JSTegroland, as well in commercial and 
political importance as in other respects ; for here 
that state of civilization which had been called forth 
by contact with the Arabs seems to have reached its 
highest degree, and as the Hausa language here at- 
tained the greatest richness of form and the most re- 
fined pronunciation, so also the manners of Kdtsena 
were distinguished by superior politeness from those 
of the other towns of Hausa. 
But this state of things was wholly changed, when, 
in the very beginning of the present century, in the 
year 1222 of the Hejra, or 1807 of our era, the Fiilbe, 
called Fellani by the Hausa, and Fellata by the 
Bornu people, raised to the highest pitch of fanaticism 
by the preaching of the Reformer or Jih&di 'Othman 
dan Fodiye, and formed into the religious and poli- 
tical association of the Jemmaa, or, as they pronounce 
it, Jemmara, succeeded in possessing themselves 
of this town. However, while Kano fell inglori- 
ously, and almost without resistance, into the hands 
of Sliman (the Hausa king El Wali having escaped 
to Zaria), the struggle for Katsena was protracted 
and sanguinary. Indeed Mallem Ghomaro had carried 
on unrelenting war against the town for seven years, 
before he at length reduced it by famine; and the 
distress in the town is said to have been so great that 
a dead " angulu " or vulture (impure food which no- 
body would touch in time of peace) sold for five hun- 
dred kurdi, and a kadangere or lizard for fifty. But 
