keep themselves separated, and marriage connexions between,
them are, in the present time, of very rare occurrence.”*
It is not easy to conceive in what manner- Dr. Ruppell reconciles
the notion that the Bar&bra are descended from the
old'Ethiopians with the opinion which he repeatedly expresses,
that they are nearly allied to the people of Kordofan, unless
he supposed that country and the valley of the Nile to have
been originally inhabited by the same race. This was probably
his hypothesis, though, as we shall see, by no means
supported by historical facts. In reality the proofs afforded
by ancient historians are very strong in support of the conclusion
that the Bar&bra derived their origin from a. country
westward of the Nile, and not far from the situation of Kor-
dofan. Dr. RuppelFs argument, however, is of a different
kind : it turns upon the affinity of language between the present
Bar&bra and the people of Kordofan, a fact which, was
discovered by himself.
“ Kordofan is the term given by the Arabs and Egyptians
to a tract of hilly country, which stretchesL;©ut in, a southward
direction from the parallel of Haraza .to the .10th degree
of north latitude, extending about four degrees from east to
west, measured westward from the Bahr-el-A biad. The northern
and western boundaries of this land,” are uninhabited
steppes; in the south lie the forests, which are inhabited by
the Fertit and Shilukh Negroes, the latter of whom have
spread themselves to the eastward along the shore of the
Bahr-el-Abiad, where they border on the districts ruled by
different races of the; Bedouin Arabs: namely the Mehamu-
die, JIassanie, Beni Gerar and Kababisch Arabs.”
“ Kordofan is properly the name of a little group of hills,
situated half a day’s journey to the south-east of Obeid,
where the free Nuba dwell. The word Kordu signifies in the
Koldagi language used here, Man; the etymology of the
word Fan is unknown to me. Whether the tract of land inhabited
by the Nuba, which is designated by the Arabs and
Egyptian merchants by the name of Kordofan, whose boundaries
I have just marked out, was ever united by a political
• Ruppell, Physiognomik und Sprache der Bewohner der Provinz Dongola.
Reisen, §. 5.
bond is an undecided qf©ïkiöhi!So’ much is certain, that when
s the dominion of'fihe kin^s^ll^Serinaar extended over the re-
gionfef) theNffl to. the 20th latitude, they kept under
their- protection a tributary chief -in th^plain country around
Obeid, who èxeécaSèd'an mdiféét i'nflu?ê^dei‘<óVer the contests
of the surrounding Negro“’fepublies. It appears" that even in
the middle of the formerbëntury^ the prinCes’ of Darfur raised a
quarrel betw|pn this chief and the kihgs^-Sennaar^or about
twenty-five years ago theFqurian general; Melek Nakdum-
el-Musalle^^entirel^S^olsessed, Mel’^el-Hatshina, who
was in affiance with. Sennaar. Müssalfem, then resided in
,/Öbgid, and gövërnedffn the name of the sultan hf Darfur, Mj|f
hemlt Ibn Fatêl, until the year 182% when he was. beaten iand
killed in a battle at Bara by Mehëntë’t Tefterdar.* ^ince
that time the Turks have' becom^inasters^of the^country.”
“ The populatjon Kordofan consists^.©fi thrèe different
races, who are.distinct and speak different languSges^. They are
1. Bedouin Arabs from,the Hedjazl, 2. Colonïsts from^Dbngpla.
3. The original-natives of the-country who are Nduba or Ne-
' grbes^’ - These last are again subdivided by Ruppell into two
claves', the free Pagan Nouba who inhabit5 the hill-dft^iS^
southwarchof Obeid, rand the conquerèd Mohammedan N'onla
in the plain-country near Obeid and1 to the northward, who
cultivate the land. The latter affect the Arabic language,
though they also speak their native dialect; This native dialect
is nearly identical with the language, of Haraza and
Koldagi. In Kadgikeel and many other villages to the southward
of Obeid the Koldagi language is alpne understood.
Both the Nouba of the hill-country and. those of the plain are
Negroes and have.woolly hair and projecting mouths, though
the latter by the variation of their features sometimes give a
suspicion of intermixture in their race.
Dr. Riippell has given a short vocabulary of thé Koldagi
language collated with several other Negro dialects,, which,
last have no affinity with each other. On comparing the
words of the Koldagi with Burckhardt’s vocabularies of the
Barfibra dialects I find the following instances of resemblance,
which allowing for the different orthography of the individuals
who wrote the vocabularies, the uncertainty with which the
VOL. II. N