Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/208

 capital itself in population. Such is Buria, west of Timbo, where is seen the first orange-tree planted in Futa-Jallon, a magnificent plant with a trunk ten feet in circumference, and branches wide enough to shelter two hundred persons. At its foot stands the tomb of the famous marabout Issa, or "Jesus," before which all riders, even the sovereign himself, must dismount.

Fugumba, the holy city of Futa-Jallon, a group of a thousand huts some 30 miles north-west of Timbo in the valley of the Téné, which flows either to the Bafing or to the Falémé, is so embowered in trees that none of the surrounding heights command a complete view of the place. Here the conquering Fulahs erected the first mosque in this region, a lofty conic structure, in which each new sovereign

comes to be consecrated king of Futa-Jallon. The most learned commentators of the Koran pursue their studies in Fugumba, north of which follow, on the Bambûk route, some other large places, Of these the most important is Labé, capital of a vassal to the King of Timbo, and described by Gouldsbury as covering a great extent of ground. Farther north is the large village of Tunturun, towards the south-east Sefur, capital of the province of Kolladé, and to the south-west Zimbi, another provincial capital, a place of three thousand inhabitants in the valley of the Kakrima, which flows to the Atlantic between the Pongo and the Mallecory. Farther north, on one of the headwaters of the Rio Grande, is situated the city ae Tuba, said by Gouldsbury to be the largest in Futa-Jallon. It contains eight