308 FOOLAHS influence, but who are commonly confounded with the court fools proper. One of the most celebrated fools was Triboulet, a favorite of Francis I. of France, who amused his master often by giving him most impertinent counsels. He carried tablets on which he inscribed the names of courtiers who had committed any act of folly. His successor was Brusquet, who combined other offices with that of fool, who suffered much from the tricks of the courtiers whom he mystified, and whose bon-mots have been often repeated. Earlier French fools of renown were Oaillette, Thony, Sibilot, Ohicot, and the female Mathurine ; and the annals of the office in France terminate with Angely, who was the titular fool of Louis XIII., and who became by his refined and cynical pleas- antry one of the most formidable personages at court. Jodel der Narr, who was taken by the emperor Ferdinand II. to the diet in 1622, and Klaus Narr of Saxony, are famous among German fools. The office ceased in most Euro- pean countries about the close of the 17th cen- tury, but continued longer in Russia, where Peter the Great often had twelve fools, whom he classified, and the empress Anne six, among whom were the Portuguese Da Costa and the Italian Pedrillo. In England the fools were long distinguished by a calf-skin coat, which had the buttons down the back. By the illu- minators of the 13th century they are repre- sented as squalid idiots, wrapped in a blanket, and holding a stick with an inflated bladder at- tached to it, which served as a bauble. From the 16th century they were often men of abil- ity, and their entertainment consisted in witty retorts and sarcastic reflections. Though their license was extensive, they were liable to cor- rection or discharge from office. See Flogel's Geschichte der Hqfnarren (Leipsic, 1789). FOOLAHS, Fnlbe (sing. Pullo Fellani, or Fel- latah, a people of west and central Africa, com- prising many tribes scattered along the Niger valley, between Timbuctoo and the kingdom of Dahomey, and Bondoo and Darfoor. Origi- nally they were nomadic, their chief occupa- tion being cattle breeding; but about the middle of the 18th century, most of them be- coming converts to Islamism, they began to found independent states, and to conquer the adjacent tribes. About 1802 one of their chiefs, called Othman or Danfodio, undertook to emulate the career of Mohammed, and laid the foundation of an empire at Sackatoo. He died in a sort of fanatical ecstasy in 1818. His successors a few years ago could bring into the field about 25,000 cavalry. Gando, about 40 m . from Sackatoo, is the seat of another power- ful Foolah prince ; and at Timbo, the capital of Foota Jallon, resides a third. The aggre- gate area of these Foolah countries is estima- ted at over 300,000 sq. m. ; the population at about 6,000,000. It is the opinion of modern travellers that the Foolahs are destined to be- come the dominant people of Negroland, and they have excited more interest and scientific research than almost any other African race. In language, appearance, and history they present striking differences from the neigh- boring tribes, to whom they are superior in intelligence, but inferior, according to Earth, in physical development. Golb6ry describes them as robust and courageous, of a reddish black color, with regular features, hair longer and less woolly than that of the common negroes, and high mental capacity. Lander, who saw them near Borgoo, says that they differ little in feature or color from the negroes ; other travellers speak of them as having tawny complexions and soft hair. Dr. Barth found great local differences in their physical char- acteristics, and Bowen describes the Foolahs of Yoruba as being some black, some almost white, and many of a mulatto color varying from dark to very bright. Their features and skulls were cast in the European mould. They Foolahs. have a tradition that their ancestors were whites, and certain tribes call themselves white men. Some of them relate that they came from the country around Timbuctoo, and the prevailing opinion has been that their course of conquest was from central or east Africa west- ward ; but Dr. Barth agrees with Clapperton in thinking that they made a second migration from the Senegal toward their birthplace, in the course of which they absorbed or conquer- ed the tribes in their march. Their language is neither African nor Semitic. Foolahs are found in the suburbs of most of the towns of Soodan, pursuing the avocation of dairymen and cattle breeders. Most of them are Mohamme- dans. The usual dress of the men is a red cap with a white turban, a short white shirt, a large white robe, white trousers trimmed with red or green silk, and sandals or boots. The
