ARABS BORNOU, &C. 
41 
on the Niger a theatre for the barbarous practice 
of slave hunting. Inroads were habitually made 
for that sole purpose ; and the victims procured 
became an article of traffic with northern Africa. 
There is reason to suspect, that the same practice 
continues undiminished over all this part of the 
continent. Edrisi was not acquainted with any- 
inhabited regions 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 sattin. The capital city of the same name was 
celebrated among the negroes for its extraordi- 
nary magnitude. 
* My reasons for including Kuku in Bornou, and even con- 
sidering it as the principal part of that empire, will be explain- 
ed when treating of the geographical system of the Arabians. 
