Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/209

 ADMINISTRATION OF FUTA-JALLON. 167 hundred houses, besides those of the outskirts, and a great mosque, where warriors and traders assemble before setting out on important expeditions. Administration of Futa-Jallon. Although M. Olivier de Sanderval has obtained the concession of a railway to Timbo, the king thus expressed his views on the subject to the traveller Bayol : " I do not want our routes to be widened, or that people come here with boats or railways. Futa must remain to the Fulahs, like France to the French." A few English words are the only signs of any European influences in this region, where all whites are comprised under the general designation of Portukeiro, or " Portu- guese." The chief trade routes lie in the direction of the south-west, towards the Mallecory and Sierra- Leone, and in 1881 over one thousand three hundred persons accompanied the English envoys from Timbo to Freetown, with two hundred and sixty oxen laden with ivory, caoutchouc, and other produce. Nevertheless, France is the only European state which has yet been visited by Fulah ambassadors, who came to ratify the treaty concluded between M. Bayol and the chiefs. The Fulah state itself is divided into two rival factions analogous to the so/h of the Berber tribes. Thej^ are the so-called Sorya and Alfaya, who took their rise after the conquest, when the first king abdicated in favour of a cousin, thus creating two royal dynasties, each with its champions and followers. To prevent the dis- integration of the race it was ultimately arranged, after many sanguinary conflicts, that the two houses should henceforth reign alternately. But no important decision is come to without consulting the king for the time being out of ofiice. On the other hand, the members of the national council are immovable, and their president scarcely yields in authority to the almaneys, or kings, themselves. At each change of party the provincial chiefs have to renew their homage to the titular sovereign. So natural does this division into two factions appear to the Fulahs that they group foreign nations in the same way, calling the French Sorya and the English Alfaya. But the true rulers are the families of the notables, who on all serious occasions meet in council, and communicate their decision to the almaney. Nor are the Fulahs in other respects a difficult people to govern. So great is the universal respect for the laws, that the accused when ordered by their judges proceed to the place of appeal without escort, even at the peril of their lives. Ordinary theft is punished with the lash ; more serious offences against property with the loss of the hand, then of the second hand and the feet, at each relapse successively. Assassins and even incorrigible drunkards are condemned to death, the criminals digging their own grave and lying down in it to see that it is of the required length. The state is divided into thirteen dxawah or provinces, each modelled on the state itself, with two chiefs assisted by a council, and each village with two mayors aided by the notables. The public revenues comprise a tithe on the crops, part of the booty taken in war.
 * customs " levied on caravans, tribute from conquered populations, and a fifth