EASTERN AND WESTERN INFLUENCE 159 of which one was probably red, like the still existing red races of the Soudan, and another yellow, or practically white, we yet draw from the history of that Ethiopian people who dwelt to the south of Philse a very different conception of the possibilities of black achievement from any furnished by our knowledge of the negroid native of Africa. The language of the Songhay is also different from that of the dialects of the Western Soudan, and gives proofs of Nilotic extraction.

The modern history of this people is supposed to date from about the year 700 a.d., and it is with this alone that the historian can deal.

The story which the Songhays themselves tell of the period which preceded this, and included the foundation of the first recorded dynasty of this era, is that at a period when they were still pagans and worshipped a river-god, there arrived one day at their city two brothers out of the East. They were weary, travel-stained, and in so piteous a condition that they had almost lost their human form. Their nakedness was only hidden by the skins of wild beasts thrown upon their shoulders, and to the question whence they came, the reply was made by one brother for the other: '' Dia men el Yemen'' (he comes from Yemen). This by the Songhays, who did not speak Arabic, was taken to be a proper name, and the elder stranger was known by the name of Dia, afterwards corrupted to " Za " al Yemen. He was, according to the legend, a prince who had left his native land, attended only by his brother, with the intention of travelling over the world. Destiny had brought him to Gao. He accepted the decree of fate and remained in the city. But perceiving that his hosts were the worshippers of false gods, he killed the river-god, and ** was himself worshipped in its place." This was the beginning of the dynasty who, like their founder, were all known by the title of '' Zd.r I give the legend as commonly repeated in Songhay. It is perhaps worth mentioning in connection with it the