NIGERIA UNDER FULANI RULE 405 destroyed its dignity. Though nominally the rulers of the whole of Haussaland, the principal seats of Fulani power were to be found in the north. Here Sokoto still commanded, as the suzerain of Haussaland, a something more than nominal allegiance ; Kano sustained its ancient reputation as a trade centre, of which the relations extended to the Atlantic, to the Red Sea, and to the Mediterranean ; Katsena and Zaria, notwithstanding many abuses, maintained themselves as administrative centres of importance.

The resemblance between the feudal system of the Fulani and the system established by the conquests of northern nations in Europe in the early portion of the Middle Ages, will not have escaped the reader. The parallel is remarkable with the system established in England by the Saxons, but in Haussaland it was perhaps closer to that which was developed in Italy under the Lombards. There is also this point of difference, that whereas the Haussas were an agricultural people, the Fulani were in their origin pastoral, and it is a recognised law of historic evolution that the rule of pastoral races has a stronger tendency to despotism than the rule of agricultural races. Underneath all the abuses which have established themselves in the Fulani administration of Haussaland there is said to exist, by those who have had the opportunity of studying the state systems of the different emirates, evidence of a deep-rooted desire for self-government. Presumably the conquered states endeavoured to retain as many as possible of the existing safeguards of their constitutions. The emirs are elected by a council of elders, and this council is not an empty name. It has a right to be consulted by the emirs in relation to all their important acts. The emir who ignores it is regarded as a tyrant, and runs great risk ot losing his throne.

The constitution of Bida, by which the Fulani emirate of Nupe is now ruled, is one in which the principle of constitutional government was carried under the