rived at Arbagny." It would from this appear that the Shilúkh of the islands, and the banks of the Abiad near Aleis are only a small tribe left by the main body of the emigrant horde on their way to Sennaar, after crossing Fazoclo from Bertat. At Arbagny the Foungi fought a great battle which rendered them masters of the country. These idolaters partially embraced Islám.

This account was procured from the learned men of Sennaar, by M. Cailliaud, who accompanied the army of Ismayl Bey. Cailliaud has given a chronological table which he warrants to be more accurate than that of Mr. Bruce. According to it Sennaar was built by the Foungi in heg. 890 (A. D. 1484.) Twenty-nine kings have reigned over it 335 years, till Baady, the present king, all the kings having that name, was conquered by Ismayl in 1821. The Foungi conquered Fazoclo about A. D. 1700. Fazoclo and Bouroum are now tributary to Sennaar.

M. Cailliaud gives the following account of the physical characters of the nations of Sennaar in general.

"Les indigênes du Sennår ont le teint d'un brun cuivré ; leurs cheveux, quoique crêpus, diffèrent de ceux des vrais Nègres ils n'ont point, comme ceux-ci, le nez, les lèvres, et les joues saillantes: l'ensemble de leur physiognomie est agréable et régulier."

The same traveller observes, that among the inhabitants of the kingdom of Sennaar and the adjoining countries to the south, the results of mixture of race in the intermarriages of Soudanians, Ethiopians, and Arabs were frequently to be traced. He says that six distinct castes are well known in that countrry, the names and descriptions of which are as follows.

1. El-Asfar. The yellow people. "Les moins colorés ; cheveux plâts." These are nomadic Arabs who keep their race quite distinct. Their customs and habits are distinct. This race is from the Hedjaz: they speak pure Arabic.

2. El Akmar. "Les Rouges. Ceux-ci ont le teint rouge, les cheveux rougeâtres et crêpus, les yeux rougeâtres aussi. Cette race tient peut-être des originaires de Soudan (meaning

the Negro country) sa nuance caractéristique; elle est la moins nombreuse."

The red caste are evidently persons of the xanthous complexion. I have often alluded to the origination of this variety among the African nations as a phenomenon of not very rare occurrence, and I have noticed this particular in

stance.

3. El Soudan-Azraq: "Les Bleus. cuivré; ce sont les Foungis.

Leur couleur est

4. El Ahcdar. "Les Verts."-" Hair, like the Foungi"It is plain that the general description of the "Indigenes du Sennâr," above cited, is intended to apply to the Foungi. Features nearly Negro.

5. El Kat-Fatelobem. Partly of the first and partly of the fourth, that is, partly yellow and partly green. "Ils ont les cheveux plats, parfois au peu crêpus: le sang qui domine en eux est celui des Ethiopiens, peuples agricoles, dont la couleur ressemble à celle des Abyssins, et qui doit tirer son origine de la race la plus nombreuse des hommes qui composaient la population de l'ancienne Egypte."

M. Cailliaud in this instance, if he does not directly intend to describe the Barábras, seems to have formed his ideal definition of a common Ethiopian and Egyptian stock from that people. I beg to refer the reader to the account of the Barábra which he will find in the succeeding section.

6. Ahbits, Ahbd or Nouba.

Ce sont des peuplâdes Nègres venues de l'ouest, et qui habitant les montagnes de Bertât où ils vivent isolés. Ils ont les cheveux cotonneux, généralement noirs, un peu roux : ils ont les nez moins plâts, les lèvres moins épaisses et les joues moins proeminentes que les Nègres de l'Afrique Méridionale. Quelqu'uns ont la figure regulierèment belle.

I shall have occasion to cite some further accounts of the people here termed Nouba in the following section. I may here remark that the variety of physical traits generally noticed among these Negroes in this part of Africa, may render it less difficult to conceive that the Foungi are the real offspring of a tribe which three centuries ago resembled the Nouba of Bertât.

SECTION III. Of the Native Races of Bertât, Fertit, Donga, Darkulla and other Negro countries to the southward of Darfur, Kordofan and Sennaar.

These countries have never been visited by Europeans. M. Cailliaud is the only traveller who has been in the country of Bertat, and he was only at Qamâmyl on the northern border of that region. I have already cited his description of the natives. Bertat is the region whence the Nouba slaves are principally brought. I have already quoted from Burckhardt, Dr. Rüppell, and others an account of their physical charac

ters.

Darkulla is a mountainous tract in the same great division of Africa. According to Mr. Brown the traders of Darfur and Borgho sometimes resort thither to buy slaves in exchange for salt, which they carry with them. The people are Pagans; they are remarkable for honesty and cleanliness; they are partly Negroes, and partly people of a reddish or copper colour. Brown says, that the slaves brought from Darkulla are of a red colour; he places it to the south-west of Darfur. Probably it is beyond Begharme, and in the empire of Bornû.

Donga and Fertit are the names of countries frequently mentioned by African travellers. Little is known of them. They are described as mountainous regions, covered with forests, near the sources of the Bahr-el-Abiad. Fertit is said to contain rich mines of copper.*

* Caillaud, Voyages à Meroë et au Fleuve Blanc. See also Balbi, Abrégé de Geographie.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE RACES OF PEOPLE INHABITING NUBIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES BETWEEN ABYSSINIA AND EGYPT.

SECTION I.-Of the Barábra or Berberins.*

THE people who inhabit the valley of the Nile above Egypt, and from that country to Sennaar, give themselves the appellation of Berberi+ By the Arabs they are termed Núba. The same people in Egypt, where they are well known, are called Berberins. Their general character and habits are well described by M. Costaz, a member of the Egyptian Commission, who was at Philæ in 1799+

* I have already made some observations on the name of Barábra in speaking of the Berbers of Atlantica. Many writers have identified these nations, deceived by the resemblance of their names.

The Barábra were first distinguished as a particular race by M. Costaz in 1799, and afterwards described by Denon, Costaz, Hamilton, Legh, Waddington, and Burckhardt. Dr. Seetzen wrote a memoir on this race inserted in the "Mines de l'Orient." He supposed them to be Berbers. Vater compared a considerable number of words in the languages of the Berbers and the Barábra, and found only three which bear any resemblance, they are the following:

Neck, in Berber, arguh; in Barábra, gummurk

Professor Ritter has made by far the most extensive researches into the history of the Barábra, and he has collected a great mass of information respecting them, chiefly from Arabian writers. Ritter not only attempts to identify the Barábra with the Berbers, but ascribes to them both an Indian origin. He supports this hypothesis with vast learning and extent of research. It still has the appearance of a paradox, and since Dr. Rüppell discovered the root or stock of the Barábra in the Nouba of Kordofan, cannot be maintained with the least appearance of probability. The last treatise on the Barábra is a learned and able paper in the sixtieth volume of the Edinburgh Review. I shall have occasion to refer to most of these works in the following pages.

+ Reisen in Nubien, Kordufan und dem Peträischen Arabien, vorzüglich in Geographisch-statischer Hinsicht, von D. Edward Rüppell. Frankfurt am Main. 1829, p. 32.

Mem. sur la Nubic et les Barâbras, par M. Costaz. Description de l'Egypte. Etât Moderne, tom. i. p 399.

"The Nubians are neither Arabs, Negroes, nor Egyptians; they form a distinct race with a peculiar physiognomy and colour, and speak a language peculiar to themselves, in which they are called Barábras. Wherever there is any soil on the banks of the Nile, they plant date-trees, establish their wheels for irrigation, and sow a kind of millet called dhourra, and also some leguminous plants. Their trade consists chiefly in cloth, which they buy at Esné, giving in exchange dry dates. The Barábras were, in 1779, under the nominal dominion of the Turks, and paid an annual tribute of dates and black slaves, which latter they procured from the caravans of Sennaar. They are in the habit of coming down into Egypt in search of employ, and are known at Cairo, under the name of Berberins. They are much prized for their honesty, in which they differ much from the Arabs their neighbours."

Denon has thus described them: he says, "their skin is of a shining and jet-black, exactly similar to that of antique bronzes. They have not the smallest resemblance to the Negroes in the western parts of Africa. Their eyes are deep set, and sparkling, with the brows hanging over, the nose pointed; the nostrils are large, the mouth wide, the lips of moderate thickness, and the hair and beard in small quantity, and hanging in little locks. Being wrinkled betimes and retaining their agility to the last, the only indication of old age among them, is the whiteness of their beard; every part of the body remaining slender and muscular as in their youth.”*

We may observe here, that although Denon terms the complexion of the Barábras, a jet black, other travellers have described them as of a much redder hue, and it seems as if their colour varied from a copper tint to a dark shade. The accurate English traveller, Mr. Brown, observes, that the Nubian race commences at Assouan or Syene. In the island of Elephantine, the people are black, but in the opposite town of Assouan, "they are," he says, "of a red colour, and have the features of the Nubians or Barábras, whose language they readily speak.”

The following account of their physical character is given by M. Costaz: