tribes, however, are pure nomads. They all own allegiance to the Egyptian Government, and as long as that Government is strong they are quiet and peaceful, but directly the central authority is weakened they begin raiding each other. I append a list of these tribes, which are all pure Arab, as far as I could ascertain their names:

Before entering into any details respecting the tribes above Assúan, it is advisable to note a few historical facts which have come down to us with more or less accuracy. During the Roman period we find above the first cataract two tribes or races, the Nobatæ and the Blemmyes, who undoubtedly represent the Núba and Bíja of the present day. The Nobatæ appear to have been agricultural, the Blemmyes nomad and aggressive, and Diocletian is said to have settled colonies of the former on the Nile above Philæ, as a "buffer" between the Romans and the nomads. In 451, the two races combined in an attack on the Romans, but were badly defeated; and in 545, the Nobata were converted to Christianity, and their chief, Silko, who founded the Christian kingdom of Dongola, called himself "King of the Nobatæ, and of all the Ethiopians." In 20 or 21 A.H. (642): Amr (Amru) sent Ali Sarh, with 20,000 men, against the Núbas, but it was not till ten years later that he penetrated as far as Dongola, and "gave peace" from Assúan to Aloa1 (which appears to be Sennár), imposing an annual tribute of 360 slaves on the Núba king, Koleydozo. An incident of the struggle was the attempted relief of a besieged Núba chief by a combined Núba and Bíja force, in which there was a contingent from a giant race, called El Kowad, who wore copper rings in their lower lips, and had elephants.

In 216 A.H. (832), the Moslem Governor of Assúan entered into a treaty with the Bíja chief, Kanún ibn Aziz, by which the latter engaged to protect the road to Aidhab on the Red Sea, appoint an agent for the tribe, and pay an annual tribute of 100 camels. This is the earliest record of a Government engagement with the northern section of the Bíja, now the

Ababdeh.

Aloa may be a corruption of “El Höi," the island, the native name of the country between the two Niles.

In 255 A.H. (869), Abu Abderrahman, after a campaign against the Núba, passed eastwards to the mines in the Bíja country with the Rabya, Jeheyneh, and other tribes, accompanied by 6,000 camels carrying food and water. The Rabya Arabs settled in the Bíja country, married the daughters of the Bíja chiefs, and became the tribal rulers; the Bíja then supported the Rabya in their struggles with the Kahtan, Modher, and other Arab tribes. By 332 A.H. (943), the supremacy of the Rabya was complete; and the head chief, Beshír ibn Merwan ibn Ishak, of the Rabya, is said by Masúdi to have then had 3,000 Arab horsemen, and 30,000 Bíja camel-men.

In 344 A.H. (956), the king of Núba commenced a succession of attacks on Assúan, but he was invariably defeated by the Arabs. In 1067 A.D., according to Leo Africanus, Iaiaia, son of Abubekr, entered Lower Ethiopia and Nubia and founded the kingdoms of Adel and Dangali (Dongola), but if this be correct the kingdoms could only have lasted for a brief period. In 674 A.H. (1276), Daúd, king of the Núbas, attacked Aidhab, and advancing northwards burned the "sakíahs" near Assúan; this. was the beginning of the final struggle; the Moslems defeated Daúd, destroyed the churches, appointed his nephew, Shekendi, Governor of Lower Nubia, and made the people pay the exemption tax. A few years later Daúd rose again, and the final extinction of the Christian Kingdom of Dongola appears to have taken place before 1317 A.D., according to the inscription on a mosque at Old Dongola. Ibn Batuta says that the king of Dongola, who he calls Ibn Kenz Oddin, became a Moslem in the time of El Melik en Nasir, but it is not clear whether he means Salaeddin, 1171–1193, or Ibn Kalaún, who was reigning when he visited Egypt.1 In 725 A.H. (1326), Ibn Batuta went up the Nile; he travelled from Siút to Edfú with Dughaim Arabs, then crossed the river, and started on his desert journey to Aidhab, with a Bíja escort, from Adoane (El Edweh ?). At this time the Bíja appear to have been carrying on a war with the people of Barnau. In 815 A.H. (1412), the Howara Arab tribe attacked the Beni Kenz, a branch of the Rabya, then settled at Assúan, and drove them above the cataract; Macrizi mentions that they were called Barabra. In 1517, Sultan Selim conquered Egypt, and though we have no records that I know of, there is reason to believe that the advent of the Turks induced a further southward movement of the tribes. According to Burckhardt, the Gharbiyeh Arab tribe, being hard pressed by the Arab Jowabereh, asked Sultan Selim for assistance, and obtained from him several hundred Bosniac soldiers who drove the Jowabereh out of

1 Perhaps the King of Dongola became a Moslem in 1321 A.D., when the edict forbidding Christians to ride horses, to wear a white turban, &c., was issued.

Nubia and settled between Assúan and Say; the descendants of these men, though quite black, still call themselves Osmanli At a more recent period, as we know, the Turkish soldiers introduced into the country by Muhammad Ali frequently married and settled down amongst the natives.

The three races Arab, Bíja, and Núba which inhabit this section of the Nile Valley, seem to have the same cluck with the tongue to deny or affirm; and they are equally superstitious, firmly believing in the efficacy of charms and amulets, and in lucky and unlucky days for commencing a journey or any of the ordinary pursuits and occupations of life. They have also, if I may so express it, the same strong religious instincts, and this has led to the formation of villages or settlements of "fekis," or fakirs, to which the men go for instruction. It is said that the enormous number of fakirs is due to their exemption from taxation, and the pleasures of an idle life, but I think it is really due to religious sentiment. The Fokara (fakirs or fekis) of the Súdan represent the learned class who can read and write; they are the letter readers and writers of the villages; write charms for lovers, and talismans for protection against harm and the evil eye, and they exorcise demons. It is this religious sentiment which has enabled the Khatimíyeh to extend their teaching so widely. The Khatimíyeh are one of the many Taríkahs or religious orders of Islam; and their head is known as the Sirr el Khatm, "Lord of perfection," or the man who has attained the highest degree of learning and piety. The Khatimíyeh are strict Sunnis and strongly opposed to all nonKoranic teaching; they play the same part in the Súdan as Senúsiism does amongst the Arabs of the country to the north and west. The object of the order is to strive after perfection in religion and to spread their tenets amongst the people; with this view mosques have been built and schools established in the villages; and nearly every young man I met who could read and write had been instructed by a member of the order. The first man to introduce the Khatimíyeh teaching in the Súdan was Muhammad Osman, an Arab of the Koreish tribe, and descendant of the Prophet; he had three sons, one of whom settled at Mecca; a second was Sidi Hassan, the father of Sidi Osman, of Kassala; and a third was Muhammad, the father of Sheikh El Merghani who lives at Cairo, and who rendered most valuable assistance to us at Sawákin. The influence of these men over many of the tribes is very great, and that influence has always been used in a most beneficial way.

Before closing this section of my paper I must briefly allude to the slave class. The number of slaves in the Súdan is enormous, and they constitute nearly one-half of the popula

tion; they belong to a variety of tribes, speaking different languages, so that their only medium of communication is broken Arabic; and this appears to prevent any combination which might lead to a slave rebellion. They are not unkindly treated by their masters, but for every slave who reaches Dongola at least twelve have probably died on the road, and even many of those who survive the horrors of the long marches bear the marks of the cruelty of the slave hunters. The men are employed as domestic servants, agricultural laborers, soldiers, and as small craftsmen: the women as servants and prostitutes amongst the sedentary population; amongst the nomads the female slaves frequently become the wives of their masters.

I. Hamitic.

To the Hamitic group belong the Ababdeh, the Bisharín, and probably the Kabbabish; these tribes form part of the Great Bíja or To-Bedawiet speaking race of which the Hadendoas, and Amarars of the Eastern Súdan are also members. Mr. Cameron has so recently read a paper on the Bíja, near Sawákin, with special reference to the two last named tribes that I will only make a few general remarks.

In the middle ages the Bíja tribes were powerful, and apparently consolidated under one leader. Ibn Batuta, early in the 14th century, mentions a king of Bíja, named El Hadrabi, who received two-thirds of the revenue of Aidhab, the other onethird going to the king of Egypt. Their territory contained gold and emerald mines, and they escorted pilgrims from Kús to Aidhab, along the road then followed by pilgrims to Mecca. At the close of the 14th, or very early in the 15th, their rich town Zibid (Aidhab?) on the Red Sea was destroyed, according to Leo Africanus, by the Sultan, and this seems also to have destroyed their cohesion, for the Aidhab road was permanently closed about the same time. Early in the 16th century Sawakin was in the possession of the Turks to whom the "Troglodyte" (Hadendoa?) paid tribute. Leo Africanus (1526) describes the Bíja as "most base, miserable, and living only on milk and camels' flesh." Selim El Assúani says that they reckoned their lineage from the female side; that each clan had a chief, but that they had no sovereign and no religion; that the son by a sister or daughter succeeded, and that they had fine cows and camels; he adds, in words which might be used at the present day, "they are swift in running, by which they distinguish themselves from other people. Their camels are likewise swift and indefatigable, and patiently bear thirst; they outrun horses with them and fight on their backs, and turn them round with ease." Their country was always in commotion, and they were

مندا

مدینہ

حران

a people ever prone to mischief. I have already alluded to the settlement of the Rabya, a tribe which entered Egypt with Amr, and took a leading part in the conquest, amongst the Bíja; and similar settlements appear to have taken place amongst the eastern tribes by Arabs from Hadramaut, for Selim El Assúani states that the Hadhareb are the principal men of the nation. On the other hand, Ibn Batuta remarks that near the Red Sea coast the Bíja had some Bedawi Arabs subject to them. The questions connected with the site of Aidhab, the position of the gold and emerald mines, and the old pilgrim road, though very interesting, hardly find a place here. Enough has been said to show the peculiar relations that have existed between the Arabs and the Bíja, and to explain the origin of the Sheikh families, which constitute such a peculiar feature amongst the tribes.

The Ababdeh occupy a most important position, for they extend from the Nile at Assúan to the Red Sea, and reach northwards to the Keneh-Kosseir road, thus completely covering the south border of Egypt east of the Nile. They represent with some of the Bisharín clans, the Blemmyes of the classical geographers, and their habitat is little changed since the Roman period; they were in a constant state of warfare with the Romans, who at last adopted the policy of subsidizing them. In the middle ages they were known as Bíja, and conveyed pilgrims from the Nile Valley to Aidhab, the port of embarkation for Jeddah. From time immemorial they have been guides of caravans through the Nubian Desert, and up the Nile Valley as far as Sennár; they intermarried with the Núba and settled down in small colonies at Shendi and elsewhere long before the Egyptian invasion. When the Súdan was conquered by Muhammad Ali, the Ababdeh rendered important services as guides, in supplying information, and in providing camels for transport; the Fogára clan in reward for its services was given the guardianship of the road across the Korosko Desert, and its chief, now represented by Hussein Pasha Khalifa, was made Khalífa; new Ababdeh settlements were also formed at Abu Ahmed and other places. They are still great trade carriers, and penetrate into the most distant districts; and as they are constantly meeting members of the various colonies of their tribe they have unusual sources of information and opportunities for intrigue. The Ababdeh as a rule speak Arabic, having from close contact with Egypt lost their own language, but the eastern portion of the tribe in many cases still speak ToBedawiet; those sections nearest to the Nile have a large admixture of fellah blood. They claim an Arab origin,1 ap

1 Burckhardt says they are descended from Selman, an Arab of the Beni Helal.