With respect to the custom that the hereditary power does not descend from the father to the son, but to the sister’s son,—a custom well known to be very prevalent not only in many parts of Negroland, but also in India, at least in Malabar,—it may be supposed to have belonged originally to the Berber race; for the Azkár, who have preserved their original manners tolerably pure, have the same custom, but they also might have adopted it from those tribes (now their subjects—the Imghád) who conquered the country from the black natives. It may therefore seem doubtful whether, in the mixed empires of Ghánata[121], Melle[122], and Waláta[123], this custom belonged to the black natives, or was introduced by the Berbers. Be this as it may, it is certain that the noble tribe of the Awelímmiden deem the custom in question shameful, as exhibiting only the man’s mistrust of his wife’s fidelity; for such is certainly its foundation. As for the male portion of the ancient population of Ásben, I suppose it to have been for the most part exterminated, while the rest was degraded into the state of domestic slavery, with the distinct understanding that neither they nor their children should ever be sold out of the country. The consequence of this covenant has been an entire mixture[124] between the Berber conquerors and the female part of the former population, changing the original Berber character entirely, as well in manners and language as in features and complexion. Indeed, the Háusa language is as familiar to these people as their Auraghíye, although the men, when speaking among themselves, generally make use of the latter. The consequence is, that the Kél-owí are regarded with a sort of contempt by the purer Berber tribes, who call them slaves (íkelán). But there is another class of people, not so numerous indeed in Ásben itself as in the districts bordering upon it; these are the Búzawe, or Abogelíte, a mixed race, with generally more marked Berber features than the Kél-owí, but of darker colour and lower stature, while in manners they are generally very debased, having lost almost entirely that noble carriage which distinguishes even the most lawless vagabond of pure Targi blood. These people, who infest all the regions southwards and south-eastwards from Ásben, are the offspring of Tawárek females with black people, and may belong either to the Háusa or to the Sónghay race. What I have here said sets forth the historical view of the state of things in this country, and is well-known to all the enlightened natives. The vulgar account of the origin of the Kél-owí from the female slave of a Tinýlkum who came to Ásben, where she gave birth to a boy who was the progenitor of the Kél-owí, is obviously nothing but a popular tale indicating, at the utmost, only some slight connection of this tribe with the Tinýlkum.