Chap. XXXVI. 
yo'la. 
501 
empire on the ruins of several smaller pagan king- 
doms, the most considerable of which was that of 
Kokomi. Whether what the people used to say be 
true, that the name of the wife of this officer was 
A'dama too, I am not able positively to decide.* 
Yola is quite a new settlement, called by this name 
after the princely quarter of the town of Kano, — the 
former capital, of which Denham's expedition heard 
some faint report, being Gurin. Yola is situated in a 
swampy plain, and is bordered on the north side by 
an inlet of the river, the inundation of which reaches 
close to that quarter where I was living. The town 
is certainly not less than three miles long from east to 
west. It seems probable that there are different 
names for the different quarters ; but my stay was 
too short to allow me to learn them. The court- 
yards are large and spacious, but often contain only 
a single hut, the whole area being sown with grain 
during the rainy season. All the huts are built with 
clay walls on account of the violence of the rains, and 
are tolerably high. Only the governor and his elder 
brothers possess large establishments with dwellings 
built entirely of clay. Notwithstanding its size, the 
place can hardly contain more than twelve thousand 
inhabitants. 
It has no industry ; and the market, at least during 
the time of my stay there, was most insignificant and 
* A'damawa is certainly not quite identical with Fumbina, as it 
denotes only those regions of the latter which have been conquered 
by the Fiilbe, while many parts are as yet unsubdued. 
K K 3 
