There is no doubt that, if any African tribe deserves the full attention of the learned European, it is that of the Fúlbe (_sing._ Púllo), or Fúla, as they are called by the Mandingoes; Féllani (_sing._ Baféllanchi), by the Háusa people; Felláta, by the Kanúri; and Fullán, by the Arabs. In their appearance, their history, and the peculiar character of their language, they present numerous anomalies to the inhabitants of the adjacent countries. No doubt they are the most intelligent of all the African tribes, although in bodily development they cannot be said to exhibit the most perfect specimens, and probably are surpassed in this respect by the Jolof. But it is their superior intelligence which gives their chief expression to the Fúlbe, and prevents their features from presenting that regularity which we find in other tribes, while the spare diet of a large portion of that tribe does not impart to their limbs all the development of which they are capable, most of them being distinguished by the smallness of their limbs and the slender growth of their bodies. But as to their outward appearance, which presents various contrasts in complexion as well as in bodily development, we must first take into account that the Fúlbe, as a conquering tribe, sweeping over a wide expanse of provinces, have absorbed and incorporated with themselves different and quite distinct national elements, which have given to their community a rather varying and undecided character. Moreover, besides such tribes as have been entirely absorbed, and whose origin has even been referred to the supposed ancestors of the whole nation, there are others which, although their pedigree is not brought into so close a connexion with that of the Fúlbe, nevertheless are so intermingled with them, that they have quite forgotten their native idiom, and might be confounded with the former by any traveller who is not distinctly aware of the fact. Prominent among these latter are the Sissílbe, as they call themselves, or Syllebáwa, as they are called in Háusa, whom I shall have occasion to mention on my visit to Sókoto, and who are nothing but a portion of the numerous tribe of the Wákoré or Wángaráwa, to whom belong also the Súsu and the so-called Mandingoes; and while that portion of them who are settled in Háusa have entirely forgotten their native idiom, and have adopted, besides the Fulfúlde language, even the Háusa dialect, their brethren in the more western province of Zaberma use their own idiom at the present time almost exclusively.