THE ARABIANS* 
397 
Among all the states in this part of Africa, 
Kuku is represented, by the Arabian writers, to 
have held a high pre-eminence ; nor does any 
other appear to have rivalled it in power and 
splendour. According to our present maps, 
Kuku occupies a tract quite unexplored by mo- 
dern travellers, between the north of Bornou and 
the part of Nubia which borders on Egypt. In 
this case, it would remain a very important dis- 
covery yet to be made. The position, however, 
thus assigned to it, seems to me wholly incompa- 
tible with the data of Edrisi, which are as follow : 
— From Gana to Cauga, he gives nearly a month 
and a half's journey east ; from Cauga to Kuku, 
twenty days north ; from Kuku to Gana, a month 
and a half. The triangle is thus completed ; and, 
in attempting its construction, it will appear that 
Kuku, in our maps, is both placed too far north, 
and also that, instead of being north-east from 
Cauga, it ought to have a certain declination to 
the westward. In short, it will fall very precise- 
ly upon the position of the modern capital of 
Bornou. That Kuku is Bornou, is further ren- 
dered probable by the character of extraordinary 
magnitude* ascribed to both, much more than to 
* Celeberrima et magnitudine praestans, — Edrisi, The po- 
pulation of Bornou is described as a countless multitudes- 
Association, (1790), p. 
