In the sixteenth century Timbuctu had a large learned class living at ease and busily occupied with the elucidation of intellectual and religious problems.  The town swarmed with students.  Law, literature, grammar, theology and the natural sciences were studied.  The city of Melle had a regular school of science.  One distinguished geographer is mentioned, and allusions to surgical science show that the old maxim of the Arabian schools, “He who studies anatomy pleases God,” was not forgotten.  One of these writers mentions that his brother came from Jenne to Timbuctu to undergo an operation for cataract of the eyes at the hands of a celebrated surgeon there.  It is said that the operation was wholly successful.  The appearance of comets, so amazing to Europe of the Middle Ages and at the present time to the ignorant, was by these learned blacks noted calmly as a matter of scientific interest.  Earthquakes and eclipses excited no great surprise.

The renowned writer of the Sudan was Abdurrahman Essadi.  He was born in Timbuctu in 1596.  He came of learned and distinguished ancestors.  He is chief author of the history of Sudan.  The book is said to be a wonderful document.  The narrative deals mainly with the modern history of the Songhay Empire, and relates the rise of this black civilization through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and its decadence up to the middle of the seventeenth century.  The noted traveller, Barth, was of the opinion that the book forms one of the most important additions that the present age has made to the history of mankind.  The work is especially valuable for the unconscious light which it throws upon the life, manners, politics, and literature of the country.  It presents a vivid picture of the character of the men with whom it deals.  It is sometimes called the Epic of the Sudan.

From this brief sketch which I have given of the African in ancient and medieval times it is clear that Negroes should not despise the rock from which they were hewn.  As a race they have a past which is full of interest.  It is worthy of serious study.  From it we can draw inspiration; for it appears that not all black men everywhere throughout the ages have been “hewers of wood and drawers of water.”  On the contrary, through long periods of time there were powerful black nations which have left the records of their achievements and of which we are just now beginning to learn a little.  This little, however, which we have learned teaches us that the Negroes of today should work and strive.  Along their own special line and in their own peculiar way they should endeavor to make contributions to civilization.  Their achievements can be such that once more black will be dignified and the fame of Ethiopia again spread throughout the world.

MONROE N. WORK

THE MIND OF THE AFRICAN NEGRO AS REFLECTED IN HIS PROVERBS