394 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY King of the Moors. Certain Moors who were with Bello pointed this out to him, and the unwelcome evidence that the opposing army was not composed entirely of infidels made Bello so angry that he ordered the Moors who were with him to quit the ranks.

The battle began. " God gave the victory to the Moslems, and 25,000 of the enemy were killed." The number of confederated states engaged may be partly estimated by the havoc made among their rulers. Al, King of Gober, was taken prisoner ; Roud, King of Katsena, was killed ; Aber, King of the Moors, fled, Bello kept his soldiers in strict order, and allowed no slaves to be made. He assembled the notables of Gober, and bade them choose a king in place of the king whom he had taken prisoner. They chose Bello's own son, Fodi. We are not told whether the votes were free. But even the complaisant chronicler of the Fulani records that Fodi's conduct in his new kingdom was ''scandalous." He was "tyrannical, dissolute, impious, and occupied himself solely with games and pleasure." The appointment is worth noting, as Fodi furnishes in the lifetime of Sultan Bello an example of the bad Fulani of whom, in the universal praise of the Fulani race, there is a tendency to lose sight. If it may be said of Sultan Bello that he was himself an embodiment of the very best qualities of his race, this favoured son may no less justly be taken as a prototype of the cruel and self-indulgent despots, under whose rule at a later period Haussaland fell into the state of ruin and decadence in which we found it.

The battle in which this victory of Islam was achieved was called the battle of Dagh. Disastrous as it was to the interests of the confederation, the states did not accept the result as a final and decisive defeat. They continued their resistance to Fulani rule, and Bello addressed himself to the task of reducing each singly to submission. Zanfara was conquered, and he placed his brother Atiku upon that throne. Gando then raised a revolt against Abdallal, Bello's uncle. Bello marched