NIGERIA UNDER FULANI RULE 407 different degree according to the amount of real authority exercised by the conqueror ; and states which, from varying causes, were wholly independent. These last were either states which had succeeded in always defending their independence, and were ruled over by responsible native rulers of their own race, such as Boussa, Kiama, Argungu, &c., or Haussa and pagan communities which, having been once under Fulani rule, had succeeded in throwing it off, and were generally known by the name of Tawai, or *' Revolted Peoples." Finally, there were independent pagan tribes, mostly in a low stage of development — sometimes even cannibals — and owning allegiance to no single authority. These resembled the pagans of the coast, among whom the authority of an individual chief is sometimes limited to the ramifications of his own family. As the higher development of Mohammedan institutions was to be found in the northern states, so this lowest type of pagan was most numerous in the southern districts lying upon both sides of the Benue. And, correspondingly, while the low class of pagan still held occasional fastnesses in the hills of the Fulani states, Fulani conquerors had imposed themselves upon the southern districts and held certain walled towns in the pagan areas.

Through the chaos of these conflicting interests, the practice of slave-raiding, carried on alike by the highest and the lowest, ran like the poison of a destructive sore, destroying every possibility of peaceful and prosperous development.