RESIDENCE AT SOCCATOO AND MAGARIA. 
205 
Numbers of his countrymen came from the west to settle in 
Houssa. These he located principally in the province of Zegzeg, 
where he gave the lands and houses of the negroes who had fled 
to the mountains and inaccessible parts of that province lying to 
the south. To the Arabs of Tripoli and Fezzan he made large 
presents of slaves and camels, sending none away empty-handed. 
The news of his fame spread every way. Arabs, in shoals, came 
and passed with him as slierifs, and would seldom go away under 
a hundred slaves, with camels and provisions. 
Before he gathered the Foulahs, or Fellatas, under his govern- 
ment, they did not live in towns, but were scattered over the greater 
part of Soudan, attending to their herds and flocks, living in tem- 
porary huts, generally in the midst of unfrequented woods, seldom 
visiting the towns. This business they left to the women, who 
attended the markets, and sold the produce of their cattle. The men 
were reported to live a religious and harmless life, spending a great 
part of their time in reading the Koran and other religious books. 
Now and then a few of their learned men would come forth, and 
engage themselves for a few years with the Mahometan sultans 
and governors, until they had collected a little money, with which 
they purchased a few cattle, and then returned to the woods to their 
countrymen, who moved about from one province to another, 
according to the seasons, and the nature and quantity of pasture 
and water; contented with building temporary huts of straw and 
rushes, and to be left in peace. No one indeed thought of dis- 
turbing them, or interfering with their pursuits, they being probably 
considered as too contemptible and insignificant to excite any fear. 
Thus dispersed, no one but themselves knew or could guess at their 
numbers. Melli, or the petty kingdoms of Foota-Torra, Foota- 
Bonda, and Foota-.Jella, were the places from whence they spread 
themselves eastward, until they became very considerable, in point 
of numbers, in all the countries between the above-mentioned 
