3o8 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY The first requirement which he made, therefore, was that all arms which were in the town should be given up. To ensure a complete surrender, an announcement was made that on a certain day the houses in the town would be searched, with the exception of the houses of the jurisconsults and certain privileged persons. The natural result of such an announcement was that the populace, fearing lest much besides arms would be taken by the soldiery in their search, deposited everything that they had of value with the owners of the exempted houses.

But the measures of Mahmoud ben Zergoun were thorough. The jurisconsults — a term which seems in the narratives of the Soudan to cover all the educated portion of the population — were precisely the class at whom he proposed to strike. When the search for arms in the houses of the populace had been effected, he caused a further announcement to be made that an oath of allegiance to the Sultan of Morocco would be publicly administered in the Sankore Mosque. The taking of the oath was to be accompanied with all due ceremonial, and three days were allotted for its completion, October the 1 8th, the 19th, and 20th of 1593.

The two first days of the ceremony are interesting, as showing incidentally to what distance the authority of Songhay at that time extended in the north and west. The first day was entirely occupied by the swearing of the people from Touat, Fezzan, Augila, and the northern regions of the desert ; on the second day the oath was taken by people from Walata, Wadan, and the western regions ; on the third day none were left to take the oath but the jurisconsults and distinguished residents of Timbuctoo, who were to swear in presence of the assembled people. On that day, when the mosque was full, the doors were suddenly closed. Every one was told to leave the mosque, with the exception of jurisconsults, their friends, and their followers. When none but these remained in the building, Mahmoud