74 MAN I PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



on the left bank of the Nile in Libya [Africa], a great nation &C. 1 "; 

 and are also to be identified with the Nobatce, who in Diocletian's 

 time were settled, some in the Kargey oasis, others in the Nile 

 valley about Meroe, to guard the frontiers of the empire against 

 the incursions of the restless Blemmues. But after some time 

 they appear to have entered into peaceful relations with these 

 Hamites, the present Bejas, even making common cause with 

 them against the Romans ; but the confederacy was crushed by 

 Maximinus in 451, though perhaps not before crossings had taken 

 place between the black Nubas and the Caucasic Bejas. Then 

 these Bejas withdrew to their old homes, which they still occupy, 

 between the Nile and the Red Sea above Egypt, while the Nobat?e, 

 embracing Christianity, as is said, in 545, established the powerful 

 kingdom of Dongola which lasted over 800 years, and was finally 

 overthrown by the Arabs in the i/j-th century, since which time 

 the Nile Nubians have been Muhammadans. 



But they still retain their old Nuba speech, which, as shown 

 by Lepsius 2 , differs but slightly from that now current amongst 

 the Kordofan Nubas. This is one of those cases where language 

 renders indispensable service to ethnology 3 . Taken in connection 



1 'E dptcrrepcDi' 5 pvaeus rov Nei'Aou NoO/3cu KO.TOIKOV(TIV iv rrj Aifivrj, 



&c. (Book xvn. p. 1117, Oxford ed. 1807). Sayce, therefore, is quite 

 wrong in stating that Strabo knew only of " Ethiopians," and not Nubians, 

 "as dwelling northward along the banks of the Nile as far as Elephantine" 

 (Academy, April 14, 1894). 



2 Nubische Grammatik, i88i,#asstm. In this classical work Lepsius, after 

 referring to the "dark bronze colour" of the present Nilotic Nubians, "darker 

 than that of the Abyssinians," adds : " Der alte Negertypus bricht nicht selten 

 wieder ziemlich deutlich durch ; namentlich ist das Wollhaar ziemlich haufig " 

 (p. 74). On these grounds Prichard had already grouped the Nubians not with 

 the Arabs or Hamites, but with the Sudanese Blacks. All the more surprising 

 is Sergi's contention that they are di stirpe camitica, " of Hamitic stock." 



3 Even Prof. Sergi, despite his almost exclusive faith in cranial characters 

 as racial tests, admits this: "La traccia e la persistenza del linguaggio attra- 

 verso secoli e malgrado il dominio di altra gente e il mutamento di religione, 

 spesso e simile alia persistenza dei caratteri fisici umani ; ed allora la lingua e 

 un argomento di molto valore antropologico" (Africa, Antropologia delta Stirpe 

 Camitica, Turin, 1897, p. 97). But in this case he declines to deal with the 

 linguistic factor (" Non sono io che posso risolvere i problem: linguistic! "), and 

 is therefore able still to hold that the Nile Nubians are Hamites ("I Nubi della 



