THE MELLESTINE 119 trustworthy, says that the people of Melle embraced the law of Mohammed when *'the uncle of Joseph, King of Morocco" — that is, Abou Bekr, the Morabite leader — was then prince. He also says that the government of Melle remained for some time in the posterity of that prince.

If Melle in the beginning took its rise, as Leo Africanus suggests, under Berber princes, it is but one instance the more of the profound impression made by the Morabite invasion upon Negroland. But there can be no doubt that in the days of its greatness the kings of Melle were black, and ousted the Berber descendants of the Morabites in the desert.

In the early part of its history Melle consisted of three principalities claiming equal rights. The first of its kings who would appear to have consolidated the kingdom and enlarged its boundaries to any appreciable extent was Mari Djata, who overthrew the Su-Su and conquered Ghana in the early part of the thirteenth century. The name of Ghana from this time is no longer heard, Ghana being properly the title of the ruler, not the name of the kingdom. The country heretofore known as Ghana now becomes Ghanata or Walata. Mari Djata's name of Djata meant Lion. His hereditary title Mari was something less than king, confirming the theory that he was the first of the rulers of Melle to consolidate its possessions under one sovereign. He reigned for twenty-five years, and his descendants and successors are all known by the full title of Mansa, or king, the succession going, as in the old pagan succession of Ghana, in female descent, not to the king's son but to his sister's son.

The pilgrimages made by these kings to Mecca are the dates by which we are usually able to fix the period, if not the exact limit, of their reigns. The son of Mari Djata made his pilgrimage as king in 1259. A famous usurper, Sakora, who greatly extended the dominions of Melle towards the east, made his pilgrimage in the year 13 10.