Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/386

 recent foundation, Bida was said to have already a population of nearly a hundred thousand at the time of the missionary Milum's visit in 1879. It is a fortified city, surrounded by a regular quadrilateral rampart and broad ditch, and laid out with wide streets, extensive squares, and market-places. Its Moslem inhabitants are very industrious weavers, dyers, iron-smelters, and forgers, and even manufacture ornamental glassware for arms and personal decoration. Schools are established in all the districts, and most of the children read and write Arabic.

The large river Kaduna (Lavon, Lafun), which joins the Niger between Rabba and Bida, has its farthest headstreams in the provinces of Katsena and Kano, whence it flows through the province of Southern Haussa, known by the various names of Seg-Seg, Saria, and So-So (Zeg-Zeg, Zaria, Zo-Zo). Saria (Zariya), capital of this territory, boasts of the finest mosque in Haussa Land. Lying on

the divide between the Kaduna basin and the northern rivers, it probably stands over 3,000 feet above the sea in a well-watered, fertile, and extremely healthy district. The plains of Egobbi, south of Saria, appeared to Lander more especially worthy of being compared with the most charming sylvan landscapes in England. Egobbi itself, pleasantly situated on a northern affluent of the Kaduna, is regularly laid out, with open well-kept streets within a perfectly square rampart. Its calabashes are greatly prized for the delicacy of the carvings, chiefly of domestic animals, with which they are decorated. The dominating Fulah section of the community retains the national love of a pastoral life; by them husbandry is held in honour, but stock-breeding is a religion.

In the upper Kaduna basin there are no large towns, but numerous villages, peopled either by Mohammedan Fulahs, or pagan Negroes of the Kado nation.