Note 30 — Chapter VII · THE HAUSAS AND THEIR EMPORIUM.

Some authors consider the Hausas to be a branch of the Mandingo race. According to this theory, the Mandingoes are the parent stock, and the Hausas, Songhays, Bambarras, &c., are all offshoots of the same great family. Although there would appear to be a certain basis of probability—especially as regards the Bambarras—in the plea of a common Mandingo origin, our historical and ethnological knowledge of the different races of West Africa, which is still in the embryonic stage, precludes anything in the nature of a positive assertion.