highlands of Enarea, more remote than the sources of the
Abyssinian Nile.*
After entering the plain of Sennaar, which is supposed by
Rennell and Humboldt to be four thousand feet above the
level of the sea,4* the Abiad forms a great number of islands,
many of which serve for a retreat to the Shihikh, a tribe of warlike
and savage Negroes who infest the neighbouring country
with their marauding attacks. The Shilukhs collect tolls
in their country for the passage of the Abiad, in which river
they gather honey and hunt the hippopotamus» These people
were described to Dr. Seetzen by Hassan, an intelligent Negro
pilgrim of Mobba who had passed through their territory
in his way to Mecca.J The Shilukhs are completely naked ;
they are pagans, and worship either trees or unhewn-upright
stones, like the maen-hirion of the ancient Britons. They are
separated from Darfur by the Bahr-el-Ada.§ We have some
notices of the same people from M. Linarit, in an account
of his voyage on the Bahr-el-Abiad, published by the -Geographical
Society, which agree with the accounts collected
by Dr. Seetzen. It seems that the Shilukh have a permanent
station, or town near Aleis on the Abiad, but their capital) or
the residence of their king, is at a place called Damah, much
further towards the south.
Some later accounts of the Shilukh given by European travellers,
confirm these statements of the Negro pilgrim Hassan.
According to M. Linant, this people have a permanent station
or town near Aleis on the Bahr-el-Abiad, but their capital or
the residence of their king, is at a place called Damah further
to the northward. They are described more particularly by Lord
Prudhoe, who says that they are a people of enormous -size.
“ Ibrahim Caschief, a man of fire feet ten inches high, said
he did not measure higher than their breasts. Men and
women went perfectly naked : they possessed neither camels
nor horses, and the cattle which they had was probably plunder,
the sickness after rains destroying both men and beasts.
Their food was chiefly fish and dhourra. They had numerous
canoes, some containing sixty persons: they are armed with
* Bruce’s Travels. Ritter’s Erdkunde, Theil. i. Ritter’s Erdkunde.
X Monathliche Correspondenz, ubi supra. § Mithridat. T. ifi. s. 237.
OR FUNGI, AND OF SENNAAR. 167
spears, bbws, arrows, and clubs.” “ When Cohrscbied Bey.
'received some of- the iprincipal' Shilukhs, they made him
swear by the sun to-dodhem no harm.” It seems that they
are true Negi-oesi It instated in this narrative that the
Shilukhs are the first black/people, with -woolly hair and
Negro character On the Bahr-el-Abiad. The following acdOunt
of them was given to Lord Prud'hoe by Baady the late mek
or king of Sennaar. • “ The Shelooks live in 'the islands of
the Bahr-el-Abiad, above Waddi Sfrallice. ’ Their great
sheik resides in the island of Abba, andHis' darned Arweg^aL
They have numerous i canoes, which they manage with great'
skill, and are men of immense size and greatscbdrageif They
wear no covering, and worship the sun and, moon. The
Denka live on the east bank of the Bahr-cl-Abiad, part of
their country being parallel (in the dame' latitude) with the
Shelooks, and a part extending beyond them. * The capital
town is Damah, and their shiek’s name Akone. They bury
their-dead in ah Upright position, and make of wood the head
of a bull which fthey worship. At the age/of puberty.both
sexes have a tooth drawn from the upper jaw. Among, the
ShelOoks, Mariam is not an unusual teniae? ifor;,the women.
Originally the Denka and^ShelookS'were thms&me.^hation, but
they are now quitifieparate and' constantly ;at' war. Both
possess cattle in quantity, and are armed with longj^pears/
which they do not throw, but crouching behind their shields,
wait the near, approach of the enemy.”
It appears from further information obtained by Dr. Ruppell,
that, the stations above noticed on the idwertfcdurse of the
Bahr-el-Abiad are not the ancient abdde^of the race of;Shi-
lflkh and Denka. We are assured by that intelligent ‘traveller,
that the Shilukh Negroes are a numerous and widely
spread people in the country of Bertat, bordering on Fertit,
and to the southward of Kordofan, - beyond the tenth degjre^r
of southern latitude, whence they have-dispersed .themselves
towards the east and north, along the -course of the Bahr-el-
Abiad.* The family of the Melek Baady, thd soveieign of
* Dr. Riippeli’s Reisen in Kordufan, S e e , 1 3 3 .«