Chap. XXIX. HISTORY OF BO'RNU. 
255 
Makaremma (a man intimately connected with the 
old dynasty, who made the two copies for me, and of 
whom some notice will be found in my journal) that 
it is a mere extract from a more voluminous work, 
which he represented as still existing, but which I 
was unable to procure, as it is carefully concealed, 
The whole business of collecting documents and in- 
formation relative to the history of the old dynasty 
was most difficult, and demanded much discretion, 
as the new dynasty of the Kanemiym endeavours to 
obliterate as much as possible the memory of the old 
Kaniiri dynasty, and has assiduously destroyed all 
its records wherever they could be laid hold of. 
As regards the time when the chronicle, of which the 
manuscript in question is a very meagre and incorrect 
abridgment, was written, it is stated that the various 
parts of it were composed at different times, at the 
beginning of every new reign ; and the question is, 
when the Kamiri people, or rather their ulama, 
began to commit to writing the most important facts 
of their history. This question we are fortunately 
enabled^ from Imam Ahmed's work, to answer satis- 
factorily ; namely, that there existed no written 
record whatever of the history of his country pre- 
vious to the king Edris Katakarmabi, whose reign 
falls in the first half of the sixteenth century of 
our era. For when that writer refers to facts 
of the older history, he is only able to cite as his 
authority oral information received from old men 
versed in historical tradition ; and he evidently men- 
