“ La couleur des Barâbras. tient en quelque sorte le milieu
entre le noir d’ébène des habitans de Sennaar et le teint
basané. des - Egyptiens du Saÿd. Elle est... exactement semblable
à celle de l’acajou poli foncé. Les Barâbras se prevalent
de cette nuance, pour se ranger parmi des blancs.” Les
traits des Barâbras së rapprochent effectivement plus de
ceux des Européens que de ceux des Nègres : leur peau est
d’un tissu extrêmement fin: sa couleur ne produit point un
effet désagréable ; la nuance rouge qui y est mêlée,1 leur
donne un air de santé et de vie.
“ Ils diffèrent des Nègres par leurs cheveux, qui sont longs
et légèrement crépus sans être laineux. J ’ai remarqué pipi:
sieurs enfans dont le cheveleure était mélangée de touffes
noirs et de touffes blonds : mais la nuance de ce blond n’est pas
la même que celles des Européens : elle se rapproche beaucoup
de la couleur de cheveux roussées par le feu : rien n’an-
nonee cependant qu’elle ait été produite artificiellement.^
If appears from the vocabularies collected by Burckhardt
that the tribes termed Kenous and Nuba speak different dialects,
but evidently belonging to the same idiom j. and M.
Cailliaud assures us, that the people of Succot and Mahas
understand the natives of Lower Nubia, or the districts near
to Egypt. The Dongolawi also speak the same language, and
it-is the prevalent idiom, except among the Arabs, who are
everywhere a distinct people from the Barâbra, as far as
Dar Shakie, or the country of the Shegya. Dr. Riippell
gives a full account, of the races inhabiting the province of-
Dongola ; from it I shall translate some particulars which
are very- remarkable.
<l The inhabitants of Dar Dongola,” he says, “ are divided
into two principal classes, namely the Barâbra, or the descendants
of the old Ethiopian natives of the country, and
the races of Arabs- who have emigrated from the Hedjaz.
The ancestors of the Barâbra, who-in the course of centuries
have been repeatedly conquered by hostile tribes, must have
undergone some intermixture with people of foreign blood ;
yet an attentive inquiry will still enable us to distinguish
among them the old national physiognomy, which their forefathers
have marked upon colossal statues, and the basreliefs
of temples and sepulchres. A long, oval countenance,
a beautifully curved nose* somewhat rounded towards the
top, propartionately thick lipsy but not protruding excessively,
a retreating chin, scanty beard, lively eyes, strongly
frizzled but never woolly hair, a remarkably beautiful figure
generally of middle. size, and a bronze colour, are the characteristics
ofTtKe genuine Dongolawi.* These same traits ofphy*
siognomy are generally found amongthe Ababdi, the Bisheri,
a part of the inhabitants of the province of Schendi, and
partly also among the Abyssinians. I had not the opportunity.
of inquiring what relation the languages of these different
races have among each other; but the Barhbra, language,
whiih is. spoken from Gebel Deka to Wadi I brim, and
throughout the whole ;of Wadi Kenus, is to be looked upon
as a Nuba or Negro tongue, from its words, consisting of few
syllables, and nearly all ending in vowels, and from its harmonious
and soft modulation, a conclusion which is confirmed
by- the fact that some words in the Barfibra language,
and in the Kordofan idiom of Haraza, Gebel Atgiau, and
Koldagi are identical. Perhaps this affinity of languages is
partly the reason why the Arabs settled in the country design
nate the proper inhabitants of the province- »of Dongola, and
especially, the natives-southward of Assuan, whose mother-
tongue is the'Barabra, by the general name of Nuba. This
term the Barabra never use themselves, but it'is the national
name by which the free Negroes of Kordofan are characterised,
as I know from various information. I will explain
more fully the ideas to which this supposed alliance of language
between the Nuba Negroes and the Baritbra have
given rises”
“ Many Barfibra speak the Arabic, but very few free Arabs
consider it worthy of them to learn. the Barabra: both races
* In other parts of the Nubian valley, as at Mahas and, Succot, where the population
is really intermixed or principally of Arab origin, Dr. Riippell informs
us thatcc the handsome countenance of the genuine Dongolawi is no more to be
found s” “ Here,” he says, “ almost every profile varies, an indication of the mixture
of different races: the majority approach to the long and coarse physiognomy of
the Arab-I’ellahs.” Riippell, p. 63.