[170] Early in the fourteenth century they were strong enough to carry the war into the enemy's camp and make more than one successful expedition against Timbuktu. At present the Mossi power is declining, and their territory has been parcelled out between the British and French Sudanese hinterlands. [171] Also _Sonrhay_, _gh_ and _rh_ being interchangeable throughout North Africa; _Ghat_ and _Rhat_, _Ghadames_ and _Rhadames_, etc. In the mouth of an Arab the sound is that of the guttural [Symbol], _ghain_, which is pronounced by the Berbers and Negroes somewhat like the Northumberland _burr_, hence usually transliterated by _rh_ in non-Semitic words. [172] It should be noticed that these terms are throughout used as strictly defined in _Eth._ Ch. I. [173] Barth's account of Wulu (IV. p. 299), "inhabited by Tawarek slaves, who are _trilingues_, speaking Temashight as well as Songhay and Fulfulde," is at present generally applicable, _mutatis mutandis_, to most of the Songhai settlements. [174] As so much has been made of Barth's authority in this connection, it may be well to quote his exact words: "It would seem as if they (the Sonrhay) had received, in more ancient times, several institutions from the Egyptians, with whom, I have no doubt, they maintained an intercourse by means of the energetic inhabitants of Aujila from a relatively ancient period" (IV. p. 426). Barth, therefore, does not bring the people themselves, or their language, from Egypt, but only some of their institutions, and that indirectly through the Aujila Oasis in Cyrenaica, and it may be added that this intercourse with Aujila appears to date only from about 1150 A.D. (IV. p. 585). [175] Hacquard et Dupuis, _Manuel de la langue Songay, parlee de Tombouctou a Say, dans la boucle du Niger_, 1897, _passim._ [176] "A Survey of the Ethnography of Africa," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Soc._ XLIII. 1913, p. 386. [177] Barth, IV. pp. 593-4. [178] The _Ischia_ of Leo Africanus, who tells us that in his time the "linguaggio detto Sungai" was current even in the provinces of Walata and Jinni (VI. ch. 2). This statement, however, like others made by Leo at second hand, must be received with caution. In these districts Songhai may have been spoken by the officials and some of the upper classes, but scarcely by the people generally, who were of Mandingan speech. [179] Barth, IV. p. 414. [180] _Ib._ p. 415. [181] Carried captive into Marakesh, although later restored to his beloved Timbuktu to end his days in perpetuating the past glories of the Songhai nation; the one Negroid man of letters, whose name holds a worthy place beside those of Leo Africanus, Ibn Khaldun, El Tunsi, and other Hamitic writers. [182] "Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes Intulit agresti Latio." Hor. _Epist._ II. 1, 156-7.