In the year of the Hegira 1218, the old Mallem Sheik Othman Danfodio, Sheik of the Koran, became religiously mad, and is said to have died some years afterwards in that state. This Foulah or Fellata conqueror was styled Sheik of the Koran from his being perfect master of that book, not only being able to read it, and all the commentaries upon it, but also to repeat any part, and explain it, from memory. The laws of the Koran were in his time, and indeed continue to be, so strictly put in force, not only among the Fellatas, but the negroes and Arabs, and the whole country, when not in a state of war, was so well regulated, that it was a common saying, that a woman might travel with a casket of gold upon her head from one end of the Fellata dominions to the other. His madness took a very unhappy turn. In the midst of a paroxysm, he would constantly call out that he should go to hell, for having put so many good Mussulmen to death. The Arabs used to take advantage of this, and tell him he was sure to be damned, unless he made amends by giving them presents to assuage the manes of their friends. Not so with the Fellatas. These people had so great a veneration for their chief that, when his head was shaving, the hairs were carefully collected, and preserved by them in cases of gold and silver, and they used to come from all parts of the interior to get a sight of him, negroes as well as Fellatas. After his death, his son Mohamed Bello, the present sultan, governed the kingdom which his father had conquered; but that part of the country to the westward of Houssa he left to his brother’s son, Mohamed Ben Abdallah, while the eldest, Mohammed Bello, had Haussa, with all the countries to the south and east. Atego, the brother of Mohammed Bello, both by father and mother, attempted to usurp the government of the latter, at the death of the Sheik Othman; but his brother put him down, and confined him to his house for twelve months; and they are now as good friends as before.