travellers, to ‘ the great regret of those readers who search their
hooks in vain for some aid in ethnographical researches. In the
great Felatah town of Rabbah,. the pppulation of which is saidjtQ be
immense,* as well as in many other .places, Mr. Oldfield had
abundant opportunities of becoming acquainted with the moral and
physical characters of this race. On the lower parts of the! Niger
the Felatahs are new inhabitants: they have come thither in great
numbers from Soeeatoo, and have built towns, after expelling or
destroying the natives of the country. A sufficient space o,f time
has not yet elapsed to admit of the hypothesis that. theSe -Eelatahs
are merely a mixed breed between the original Foules and the Negro
population, which M. Mollien has imagined to. be fihe case in Fouta-
diallo. Even in Soeeatoo and the adjoining provinces, the abode, qÜt
at least the dominion of the Felatahs is but Of two generations. And
the physical character of these people, as described by Mr. Oldfield,
certainly does not coincide with the opinion that they are a kin# Of
Mulattoes, and that those individuals .amongst them who resemble
in many respects the Negro, owe their similitude to intermixture^ a
notion which the much-lamentecH31apperton was inclmedstóeajtertainf
“ The Felatahs,”'Says Mr. Oldfield, “ are “above fiver-filet ten id'
height, very straight, and muscular., Theyh^ve.smalhheSd^ and
woolly hair. Llooked in vain for Felatahs with straight- hair, but I
di# not find one: Their complexion is a little brighter than that of
the natives of the neighbouring towns: they have Small noses, thin
lips, rather a handsome mouth, and an intelligent expression of
countenance.” f
Mr. Oldfield describes particularly a-female who was brought to
bim as a patient, and the description has no résemblance to that of
a Mulatto, nor does it agree with the supposition that thé rac’é of
Fhlah, when of dark complexion and woolly hair, owe their eba,i-
racters to the fact that they are really of Negro-descent, and only
Felatahs by name and adoption. Mr. Oldfield says, “ the invalid
‘was one of the finest girls I have seen in this country. Her colour
was a light brown, her features regularly formed, beautiful black
eyes, Grecian nose, a small mouth, with teeth as white as ivory.
There was nothing denoting the thick lips or flat nose of the Negro,
but the contrary.” He adds that “ the Felatah ladies are very par*
Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the River Niger, by
Macgregor Laird and R. A. K, Oldfield. London, 1837. Vol. ii. p. 60, Mr.
Oldfield’s Narrative.
-J- Ibid. p. 85.
ticular in adorning-their persons : their toilet occupies them several
hours : their' toes and hands are stained with a beautiful purple
colour, -by means of henna-leave’s, moistened and kept applied during
the nighty. They have the extraordinary practice of staining their
teeth with the acid of the Gorra-nut and indigo, and with the juice
of a shrub, by which the four front teeth are dyed of different colours,
one blue, another yellow, another purple, the fourth, remaining
white. Their eyelids are pencilled with sulphuret of antimony.
Their hair, Q%vfooi, is plaited in perpendicular knots of four, or five
inches long. They besmear them&elves with a rejd pigment, which
is supposed to lighten the colour of the skin, and correct the odour
of perspiration. They-are clean in their persons, and perform ablutions
twice a-day in the river.’f l||“ The Felatahs are fond of dancing
and otj|er amusements, and,|tikb all the Africans I have met
with, pass their nights at new and full moon in this diversion.”
Note VI.
On the Eboes, and other Nations near Benin and on the Lower
Niger.—See page 9S.
r Soifie-additional particulars have been' collected by Mr. Oldfield
respecting the Jbo, or Eboes, and the .neighbouring tribes of Ne-1
groes in the countries bordering on the Lower Niger.; He.says that
the Eboes have the Negro features in the greatest degree, and the
Ibbo3o next.; The skin of the Eboes is of a light copper-colour.
The;Nufifi, or Nufanchi, are af^ry handsome race of people, mild
and gentle in disposition, and industrious. The higher he proceeded
up the river the less marked was the African physiognomy. This is
attributed by Mr. Oldfield to intermixture with Arabs or Moors ;
but the number of Arabs.is .by much too'inconsiderable to produce
any change in the great mass of;the inhabitants; and the fact is,
moreover, a-general one, and observed in parts where no such
intermixture cam be imagined to exist. ,
The Ibbodo above mentioned appear to be the people of Kakunda,
a country on the western bank of the Lower Niger, higher up than
Eboe, and on the borders of Yarriba. On thenopposite side of the
-river are Nyffe, Nufie or Tappa, and lower down, Funda: Jacoba
and Adamowa lie to the eastward. Mr. Oldfield has given vocabularies
of the language^ of some of these countries, from which I shall
-extract the ten first numerals. The reader may observe that many
words in them resemble terms which occur in the tables of numerals