Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/427

 KANEM. 857 different races, are connected at least geograpliically with the populations of Kanem. Lying in the immediate vicinity of the east coast, the shifting insular groups are sufficiently accessible to afford a refuge to fugitives from the mainland. Hence numerous Kanem-bu, Dazas, and others are here settled either temporarily or permanently, while hundreds of Arabs have for generations been encamped round the inlet comprised between the Shari delta and the Bahr-el-Ghazal effluent. The Kuri, occupying some fifteen islands north of the Bahr-el-Ghazal outflow, are regarded as the true aborigines of the archipelago, no traditions associating them with the mainland. They are of very dark complexion, tall and robust figures, resembling in appearance and speech the Makari Negroes on the south side of the lake. By intermixture with Kanem-bu, Arabs, and others, they have been diversely modified, forming in the northern islands the subrace of the Yedinas or Buddumas. Some sixty islands are occupied by these barbarians, who, accord- ing to Nachtigal, number about fifteen thousand, or one-half of the whole insular population. Stockbreeders, fishers, boatmen, and traders, the Yedinas also occasionally turn to piracy, and, although calling themselves vassals of the sultan of Bornu in order to have access to the Kuka market, they make no scruple of plundering the subjects of their pretended suzerain. During the floods they are able to penetrate into the very streets of the surrounding villages, where they slay the men and carry off the women and children. Yet the Bornu rulers have never fitted out a fleet to pursue these daring corsairs amid the intricate channels of their insular domain. Naval battles have often been fought on the lake, some- times as many as two hundred large boats being engaged, but always between the Kuri and Yedinas themselves. These incessant wars decimate the population, which still increases naturally at a rapid rate, as amongst most fish-eating peoples. All the Kuri are Mohammedans, but the Yedinas are so in name only, many still practising pagan rites, and invoking Najikenem, the great spirit of the lake, who lashes the waters and strews them with wreckage. The Bahr-el-Ghazal depressions are scantily peopled by some nomad Arabs, and the Sakerda and Kreda pastors of Daza speech. Having lost nearly all their horned cattle, most of the Kredas have taken to husbandry, retiring, however, farther east in order to place themselves under the Sultan of Wadai against the Aulad-Sliman marauders. Topography of Kan em. Mao, residence of the political representative of Wadai, lies on the verge of a great plain nearly in the centre of the historical kingdom of Kanem, But it is of recent origin, and in 1871 formed a group of about a hundred and fifty straw- thatched cabins. Njimi, capital of the state, said to have been a very large place before the Bulala invasion, lies a day's march to the north-west ; and about the same distance to the west stands Gala, formerly peopled by the Kuburi, noblest of the Kanem-bu tribes. At a somewhat shorter distance south of Mao, and like it