Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/182

 cheerful buoyant temperament, they seem destined to become on the upper what the Wolofs are on the lower Senegal, the French of the colony. Other somewhat distinct ethnical groups about the headwaters of the Senegal, apparently half-castes, and speaking dialects more or less related to Mandingan, are the Kassonkés, forming federal republics in the Medina district, in Xasso, Kamera, Guidimakha, and Nadiaga. Most of them have a relatively light complexion and pleasant features, with a stealth, cat-like gait. They are quick but cunning, and of dissipated habits, given to dancing and merrymaking, and keeping up an incessant tam-taming night and day in all their villages. The Kasso women lead the fashion in all matters connected with the toilet.

The Jallonkés, between the Bating and Niger, formerly occupied the Futa-Jallon highlands, whence they take their name. Of all the Senegambian Negroes

they have come least under European influences, and have been described as barbarous and cruel, still clothed in the skins of wild beasts. Towards the north they have come in contact with the Soninkés, elsewhere with the Mandingans and Fulahs, who have dispossessed them of their primeval homes.

These Fulahs, a foreign race entirely distinct from the surrounding Negroes, have wedged themselves in between the blacks of the seaboard and those of the Niger. Here they are more numerous and present a more compact national body than in any other part of Sudan, throughout which region they are scattered in more or less powerful communities for a space of about 2,700 miles. They are met as far east as Darfur, while in the west they have penetrated to the Nunez, Pongo, and Mellicory coast streams. Their colonies stretch north and south for 600 miles