Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/373

 KATSENA. 818 thousand persons rendered homeless by the destruction of their dwellings, Kurrefi rests on one side against a granite clilT, and is defended on the other by a triple wall and two broad moats. Tlieso defences are broken only by two gateways, so disposed as to compel the enemy to wind a long way between walls pierced with loopholes. The chief approach is further masked by an outer place (Tarmes, also surrounded by a double ditch. Industry is very active in the large Ilaussa towns, where the division of labour has given rise to numerous guilds of potters, weavers, dyers, tailors, saddlers masons, smiths, jewellers, and other craftsmen. The bazaars are well-stocked, and the din of the workshops everywhere intermingles with the cadenced voice of the scholars reciting their lessons from the Koran. Labour is held in honour in these Nigritian cities, and although slavery is not yet abolislied, the number of slaves is diminishing, as in many provinces they are seldom allowed to marry, and slave-hunting expeditions to keep up the supplies are now less frequent, thanks to the spread of Islam. Topography of IIaussa Land. The Damerghu country, which, in the speech and culture of its inhabitants, nmst bo regarded as forming part of Ilaussa Land, belongs to the zone of transi- tion between the Sahara and Sudan. Here the tamarind and other large trees find their northern limit, and here cotton and other economic plants cease to be cultivated. The fields are still watered by regular rains, but not always in sufficient quantity to prevent injurious droughts. This province, inhabited by mixed Berber and Negro peoples, is dotted over with numerous villages ; but when visited in 1851 by Barth and Overweg it did not contain a single city. The region stretching south of Damerghu belongs, not to the Niger, but to the Tsad basin. Here Daura, capital of the district of like name, 90 miles north-east of Katsena, is the metropolis of the oldest of the "Seven Haussas." Before the Mohammedan invasion it was also the residence of Dodo, the chief Haussawa deity, overthrown in single combat by a doughty champion of Islam. Tessmva, which in the Tsad basin lies nearest to the source of the Yen, might be taken as a type of most Haussa towns. While the open plain is bare and monotonous, the enclosure is full of largo trees overshadowing the houses and cultivated spaces. The inhabitants of Tessawa, as well as of the neighbouring Gosfienaho and Ga-ssatra, are mostly half-caste Tuaregs engaged in trade and dyeing. Katsena, capital of an eastern province and formerly a royal city, lies near the head of an intermittent stream Hewing eastwards through the Yeu to Lake Tsud. In appearance Katsena is one of the great cities of Africa, with walls 30 feet thick, 35 to 40 high, and over 13 miles in circumference. But most of the enclosed space is now occupied with ruins, fields, and gardens, the houses and market being grouped in the north-west, the palace with a few scattered buildings in the north-cast corner of the irregular rectangle. In the sixteenth century, and pro- 84— AF