The hill is a crucial part of the history of the city of
Kano. It is believed that
Barbushe, a man of great stature and might who hunted elephants with his stick and carried them on his back to the hill, resided there hundreds of years ago. It said that there, Barbushe built a shrine to worship a deity called Tsumburbura who is believed to have been worshipped by the
Hausa people at the time before the arrival of
Islam. The only person that was allowed access to the shrine was Barbushe; anyone that entered it without his permission is said to have died tragically. Barbushe never descended from Dalla except on the two days of Idi. When the days drew near, the people that lived in the vicinity of the hill came from all over with animals to sacrifice with the hopes of gaining favor with Tsumburbura. This also has ties to the
Bayajidda legend in
Hausa folklore which is an account of a stranger believed to have been from
Baghdad, who arrived in the future
Hausaland, married into an existing ruling family, and fathered the rulers of the seven city-states which were to make up that elastic, but successful confederation known as the
Hausa Bakwai. Despite the hill being a symbol of paganism and idol worship, it still kept its significance after the arrival of Islam. The power of the sacred hill was so fixed in early
Hausa tradition that as late as 1819, the second
Fulani Muslim ruler used to the hill as a spiritual summit where he would combine his prayers of forty days and perform them at the top of the hill, thus gathering assurance of victory in war. The old "pagan" center energized prayers sent up to
Allah. Dalla hill was the center of power around which all rituals revolved. There, the ancestor figure, leader of the race, first lived. There, he had his wives and seven children. It was there that the first event took place, and it was to Dalla that the descendants must return again and again. ==References==