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FOOLS women wear a striped garment falling as low as the ankles. The children of both sexes of the better classes are taught to read and write Arabic. The men wear swords at all times, and even go armed with bows and arrows on horseback. The sovereign of each Foolah state appoints governors of the provinces at pleasure, and on their death succeeds to all their effects. The Foolahs are in continual hostility with the Arabs. See, besides the narratives of the travellers above mentioned, and the ethnological works of Prichard and Latham, Histoire et origine des PoulJias ou Fellans, by Gustave d'Eichthal (Paris, 1842). FOOLS, Feast of, a mediaeval grotesque reli- gious ceremony, celebrated for several centu- ries, chiefly in France, at the festivals of the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, the Murder of the Innocents, and especially at Christmas and Easter. The custom and amuse- ments usually connected with the pagan Satur- nalia had continued, in spite of prohibitions, to be observed among Christians both in the East and West, and gradually attached themselves to the Christian festivals occurring in December and January, which had been the months of the pagan celebrations. The festum fatuorum or follorum was a mixture of farce and piety, and a sportive travesty of the offices and rites of the church. The priests and clerks elected a pope, archbishop, or bishop, and conducted him in great pomp to the church, which they entered dancing, masked, disguised as women, animals, andmerry-andrews; they sang infamous songs, converted the altar into a buffet, where they ate and drank during the celebration of the holy mysteries, played with cards and dice, burned old sandals instead of incense, ran about leaping, and amused the populace by in- decent sallies and postures. The feast of fools was prohibited by the papal legate Peter of Capua in the diocese of Paris in 1198, and was condemned by the Sorbonne in 1444, but did not entirely disappear till toward the end of the 16th century. It was known in Germany only in the cities on the Rhine. FOOT, a measure of length indicating its origin by its name, in general use in all civilized countries, and supposed to be adopted from the length of the human foot, possibly at first of some reigning sovereign. The length is very variable within moderate limits in different countries. The Roman pes has been calculated from several sources, as ancient measures, meas- urements of recorded distances along roads, and measurements of buildings of recorded dimen- sions. From the first source their foot appears to have been 0-9718 of the English foot, from the second 0-97082, and from the third 0-96994; the average of which would be 11-6502 inches. The Greek vovs as used at Athens is believed to have been to the Roman foot as 25 is to 24, making it 12-135 English inches. The English standard, after a prolonged effort to recover the standard of 1760, which had been destroyed by fire, is now referred to the straight line FOOTA JALLON 309 or distance between the centres of the two gold plugs or pins in the bronze bar deposited in the office of the exchequer." This bar is designated as "bronze 19, No. 1," and the length is to be measured when its temperature is 62 F. This is declared to be the standard yard, and the standard foot is its third part. The twelfth part of the foot is the standard inch. The United States standard is a brass rule made for the coast survey by Troughton of London, from the old English standard. The following are a few of the principal feet, with their value in decimals of the English foot: The French old pied du roy equals 1-07, the modern pied usuel, 1-094; German, 0'971 ; Amsterdam old foot, 0-93, since 1820, if used, 1-094; Denmark Rhineland foot, 1-03; Ham- burg, 0-94 ; Stockholm, 0-97 ; St. Petersburg, 1-145; Riga, 0'89; Canton, 1-05; Lisbon, 0-927, or according to others, 0'72 ; Turkey, 1-16; Constantinople, 1-23. As used by surveyors and engineers, the foot is decimally divided. Architects and artificers employ it with these divisions, and their scales are also made with inch divisions, and these subdivided into eighths and sixteenths of an inch. FOOTA, a territory of Senegambia, west Af- rica, extending from the Senegal on the north- west to North Gangara on the southeast, be- tween lat. 15 and 16 26' N., and Ion. 12 36' and 16 36' W.; area about 15,000 sq. m. ; pop. estimated at 400,000. It is a fertile, well watered country, producing rice, gum, tama- rinds, cotton, tobacco, and various kinds of grain. Large forests are spread over the sur- face, pasture lands support sheep and cattle, and there are several mines of iron. The in- habitants are mostly negroes, active and indus- trious, but, like most of their race, extrava- gantly superstitious. They profess Moham- medanism, and are firm believers in witchcraft. They cultivate the ground with considerable skill, and are active fishermen. Their manu- factures are confined to cotton cloth and earth- enware. The country is divided into ihree parts or provinces, viz. : Foota Tora on the north, Foota proper in the middle, and Foota Damga on the east. Each of these has its chief, sub- ject to the almamy or sovereign, who is chosen from a few privileged families by a council of five. His authority is both secular and sacer- dotal, but the council has the right of repri- manding, deposing, or in some cases putting him to death. The fanaticism of the people is a great impediment to European commerce, but in 1857 the French erected a fort at Podor, on the Senegal, for the protection of traders. FOOTA JALLON, or Ffltajallon, a large terri- tory of Senegambia, W. Africa, situated about the sources of the Gambia, Rio Grande or Jeba, and Joliba or Niger, and intersected by lat. 12 N. and Ion. 13 W. It is mountainous and rocky, but about one third of it is extremely fertile, producing rice, maize, oranges, bananas, dates, honey, wax, wine, and oil, while large flocks of sheep pasture on the highlands. Iron