Note 150 — IBN BAṬÚṬAH’S JOURNEY.

The Arabic MS. here varies a little in its readings. It says—“from Kársekhó the Nile descends to Kabúrah كَبُورة and to Zághah زاغه; and these two cities, namely, al-Kábrah الكابرة and Zághíah زاغيه, pay tribute to Málí.” Tomboktú تُنْبُكْتُوا is carefully spelt by Ibn Baṭúṭah, the letters with which it is written being named by him, with their vowel points. Ibn Baṭúṭah never alludes to the native names of the Great River, but always calls it the Nile. The local names of the theoretical Niger (the Senegal and Great River together) collected by De Barros (Dec. I. liv. 3, c. 8), do not contain the Mandingo name Joliba. This name was first announced to the geographical world when speculation was unusually active, and it was immediately explained to mean the Great Waters. Park, though he seems to have adopted this interpretation (Travels, p. 194), can hardly be supposed to have been its author. Laing joins the statement of his precursors to his own information, and says (Travels, p. 327), that the Niger “is known by the synonymous appellations of Ba Ba and Joli Ba—“Large River.” Ba Bá certainly signifies Great River, the substantive Ba, a river, preceding the adjective Bá, great, according to the general rule of the Mandingo language. Thus in Ba-fing, black river, Ba-koé, white river, Ba-woollima, red river, the word Ba, a river, has precedence; but when joined with a substantive, as in Kuara-ba, the river of Kuara, it follows. With these examples before our eyes, it is impossible to admit the explanation of the name of Joliba given above, which receives moreover no support from the vocabularies. It is likely that the name Joliba, or, as written by Caillié, Dhioliba, by Mollien, Dialiba, means the river of the Jál or Jolá, Juli, Jaules, Diaules, or Dhioli (red men), from whose country it descends, whether its sources be, as stated by Park (Travels, App. p. xliv.), in Jallonké-dú, i.e. Jallo-man’s land, or in Bé-dú, where are the Juli towns and men of a red complexion.