ABSTRACT
We have several times referred to the Fula language, and it is now time to give a few particulars about it. The people who speak it call themselves Ful-be (in the singular, Pulo *) and their language Fulfulde; they are comparatively few in number, but are spread over a large area of Western Africa. Most of them are found in the Sierra Leone Protectorate and French Guinea; there are also a considerable body of them on the Middle Niger (the Masina district); others in Gurma and in the region beyond the Niger bend towards the Sahara. Some are, like the Galla and Masai, nomadic cattle-herds; these are called, on the Gold Coast, the "Cow Fulani," they are tall, light-complexioned people, very much resembling the Galla. Some have settled down and taken to agriculture; these, in general, are much darker than the nomads, which Mr. Migeod explains by saying that the latter are too poor to acquire negro slave-wives, while the sedentary ones have mixed with the neighbouring populations.† The Fulbe, he says, "are to be met with in all shades from light brown to black."
