Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/184

 time of war all able adults march to battle, and in their expeditions they give proof of great strategic skill. Besides the arms common to the Nigritian peoples, they have iron spears with leather-bound handles, often wrought with great skill. Although they have slaves, employed in the houses and as field-labourers, it redounds to their honour that they have never taken part in the slave trade. Under rare circumstances criminals were sold instead of being put to death, and a

few nomad Fulahs were captured on the confines of their territory; but they were scarcely represented amongst the gangs transported to the New World.

The recent migrations and invasions of the Fulahs are recorded in history; but where were they settled in the early period of Islam? Are they Negroes, who have acquired a fair complexion and regular features by crossings with the Arabs and Berbers? Are they kinsmen of the Nubian Barabras, or of the ancient Egyptians, whom they resemble in so many respects? Have they migrated from the southern slopes of Mauritania in company with those Garamantes who carved