THE MIDDLE AGES. 
41 
pose ; and the victims procured became an article 
of traffic with Northern Africa. There is reason 
to suspect, that the same practice continues un- 
diminished over all this part of the continent. 
Edrisi was not acquainted with any inhabited re- 
gions to the south of Lamlam, and doubts even if 
any such existed. 
The empire of Bornou is not mentioned in the 
Arabian writers by that name ; but different por- 
tions of it appear evidently to be described under 
the appellations of Zaghara, Kanem, and Kuku. * 
Of these Kuku appears to have been decidedly 
the most powerful and splendid. The king kept 
a numerous army very finely equipped : and the 
splendour of his court eclipsed every thing in that 
part of Africa. The lower orders, as usual in 
Negro states, were very indifferently clothed ; but 
the merchants, who were numerous, wore vests, 
tunics, caps on their heads, and ornaments of gold. 
The nobility are said to have been clothed in sat- 
tin. The capital city of the same name was ce- 
lebrated among the negroes for its extraordinary 
magnitude. 
As the Arabs extended themselves westward 
* My reasons for including Kuku in Bornou, and even 
considering it as the principal part of that empire, will be 
explained when treating of the geographical system of the A- 
ra|)jan§. 
