Note 70 — GHÁNAH — Aúdaghost — Aúlíl.

The MS. B.M. fol. 113, has Yersana يرسني, which seems too violently opposed to the other MSS. In the Rec. de Voy. and Not. et Extr. it is Bersa برسي.—This is the Berísa بريسي of Idrísí, the Berísá بريسا of Abulfedá. Bersana was the resort of certain negroes who brought gold from the interior, and were called Benú Nʿamrát بَنو نَعمْرَات (Rec. de Voy. p. 7), or Wangamranah ونعمراىه (Not. et Extr. p. 647), or Benú Zammakhrátah بنو زمخْراتة (MS. B.M. 113 v). It is plain that the text translated in the Not. et Extr. has been curtailed of the first two letters of the name, but if these be supplied, together with the diacritic points, it agrees with the text of the Rec. de Voy. The name, therefore, will be Benú Nʿamrátah, or Namrát. But who can be the negroes bearing such a name? Sultan Bello informs us, (Appendix to Denham and Clapperton’s Travels, vol. II. p. 454) that the people of Yarba or Yariba “originated from the remnants of the children of Canaan, who were of the tribe of Nimrod.” The people of Yariba therefore seem to be the Benú Nʿamrát. But to this it may be objected that Nʿamrát is not the correct Arabic mode of writing Nimrod. Truly not; neither can the blacks of Yariba, we verily believe, prove their descent from the great hunter. But the name and the historical tradition in this case are both equally spurious; they were both probably suggested by a sound—we think indeed, by the same sound, or, in other words, we believe that the name which was shaped into Benú Nʿamrát, and afterwards into Benú Nemrúd or descendants of Nimrod, belonged to the people of Yariba.