Note 219 — NEGROLAND divided into Nations.

Yaḳút and Abú-l-fedá both mention the towns of Maghzá and Jájah in the vicinity of Lake Kúra. Al-Maghzá, according to the former writer, was the port in which were fitted out the fleets of the King of Tekrúr, “who wages perpetual war with the infidels to the south of his states.” Al-Maghzá signifies the place whence invaders sally forth. Abú-l-fedá however differs from Yaḳút in assigning both Maghzá and Jájah, not to Tekrúr, but to Kánem. Jájah (perhaps the Gagai of Clapperton, Sec. Exped. p. 174) was the capital of a petty state situate probably between those two kingdoms. It was remarkable for its fertility and variety of its productions; among other things for its spotted sheep (described by Lander in Clapp. Sec. Exped. p. 259-60). But it must be observed that the Arab geographers, in describing the bearings of those places, particularly in reference to the lake, speak in general the language of misconception.