Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/366

 806 WEST APEICA. outport for the Mossi (More-ba) country, which stretches south-westwards in the direction of the Kong uplands. The Mossi people are apparently allied to their Tombo neighbours in the north-west, and to the Gurmas in the north-east, all speaking dialects of a common idiom. They are a historical nation, already mentioned in the fourteenth century, when a Mossi array crossed the Niger and seized Timbuktu. Erom reports received during their early explorations on the seaboard, the Portuguese fancied that the Mossi king was the famous Prester John, and envoys were actually sent in search of him. When summoned by the Songhai emperor Askia to embrace Islam, the Mossi people " after consulting the souls of their ancestors," refused to comply, thus bringing on a " holy war," in which their cities were destroyed and their lands wasted by the arms of the fanatical monarch. Nevertheless they have remained pagans, except in the towns, where foreign influences are predominant. Their territory is grouped in numerous petty autonomous states with a federate organisation, each paying a slight tribute to the prince of Woghodogho, the central city of the country. They are active traders, visiting all the surrounding fairs, where they are easily recog- nised by their coloured shirts and enormous straw hats, like those of the Kabyles in South Mauritania. The section of the Niger between Sai and the Sokoto confluence has hitherto been navigated by no European since the time of Mungo Park. Numerous towns are mentioned by Barth, situated on or near the river banks, but nothing is known as to their exact position and relative importance, except as regards ICirotashi, which is stated to be a much frequented murket on the east side, about 18 miles below Sai. Haussa Land. Haussa, probably the Tuareg Aussa, that is Cis-Niger, in contradistinction to Gurma and Aribinda, meaning Trans-Niger, is a well-defined natural region watered by the Sokoto, and limited north by the Sahara, east by the Tsad basin, south by the Benue waterparting, and west by the Niger. But these frontiers, scarcely anywhere presenting serious obstacles, have been frequently crossed at several points, and while various African races have settled in Haussa-land, tlie Haussawa themselves have occupied vast territories beyond their central domain, so that the political boundaries have constantly oscillated with fresh conquests and migrations. At present this region, one of the richest and most densely peopled in Sudan, enjoys a preponderating influence over all the surrounding lands. It commands numerous states beyond its natural limits, while its language, regarded by the local populations as the medium of trade and culture in a pre- eminent sense, has been diffused throughout the greater part of Sudan. Hence in describing Haussa it is impossible to exclude some of the adjacent lands presenting the same climatic and ethnical conditions, and sharing in the same political destinies. The area of the whole region, comprising all the fluvial basins flowing to the main stream between the Sokoto and Benue, may be approxi- mately estimated at 160,000 square miles. Notwithstanding certain rough