The inhabitants of this place are Songhay who have vindicated their liberty, up to the present time, successfully against the restless and steadily advancing Fúlbe, although in independence they are far behind their noble brethren in Dárgol and those other places lower down the Niger. The indigenous name of their family is Beleéde, or, as they are called by the Fúlbe, Kurminkóbe; and they are said to have come from Zíshia, near Téra. The nobler among them do not disfigure their features at all by tattooing, or “kórto,” while some of them make an incision under the left eye, from the nose towards the cheek-bone, and the common people, three separate incisions—three cuts on the temple, three in the middle of the cheek, and three at the lower part of the face. All of them wear clothing, the greater part of them being dressed in indigo- dyed shirts. Their weapons consist almost entirely of spears. Swords are very rare; nor are the bow and arrow, which constitute the principal weapons of the people of Dárgol, usual among them. The exertions of the natives of these places in defending their independence are greatly favoured by the discord and dissensions which prevail amongst the Fúlbe,—Mahamúdu, one of the Fúlbe chiefs of Dalla, having, in consequence of his disputes with the sheikh Áhmedu, taken refuge with the pagan natives of Mósi, from whence he makes continual predatory expeditions against the territory of his countrymen the Fúlbe. The inhabitants of Tínge, therefore, males as well as females, enjoy their liberty and independence in smoking the whole day long, and dancing every evening when it is not raining,—an amusement which already, in the eleventh century, the Andalusian geographer El Bekri did not fail to remark as characteristic of these people[75], while their less happy brethren in Timbúktu and Jimbálla have been deprived of these their favourite and innocent amusements by the austere laws of their fanatical oppressors.