﻿NO. I NATIVES OF KHARGA OASIS HRDLICKA 7 



racial elements, some of which doubtless mixed or fused with the 

 population ; a but the total effect of these mixtures on the physical 

 status of the Oasis people was probably only moderate. The inscrip- 

 tions on the temple of Hibis, at Kharga, refer to the oases, according 

 to Beadnell, under the comprehensive name " Set-ament," or " the 

 Western Lands," without any further distinction or information. 



The above is about all that can be said about the Oasis from the 

 anthropological standpoint up to the time of the Arab invasion con- 

 cerning which there are no details. After the coming of the Arabs, 

 however, and the introduction of the camel, there followed the estab- 

 lishment, or more probably an increase in importance, of the Soudan- 

 Assiout and other caravan routes, which lead across the Oasis. The 

 Soudan route then became the artery of extensive black slave traffic 

 and this introduced gradually into the Oasis a supply of Soudanese 

 negro slaves, and influenced to an important degree the racial char- 

 acter of the natives. The slaves were obtained from the caravans in 

 exchange for animals or goods, or as leavings in cases of sickness or 

 accident, and were eventually embodied into the population. In the 

 course of several hundred years, this negro admixture accumulated 

 to such a degree that today nearly one-third of the inhabitants of the. 

 Oasis show more or less pronounced traces of negro admixture. 



Some of the negro admixture is recent, or well remembered in 

 the families, other admixture is older and more difficult to trace ; but 

 very nearly all is post-Coptic, for the mummies and bones recovered 

 from the great Coptic necropolis present almost exclusively hair and 

 features of a non-negroid character. 



There doubtless also came into the Oasis in the course of time 

 some settlers from the Nile valley. How strong the Arab and the 

 Valley accessions may have been, particularly in periods of partial 

 depopulation of the Oasis by epidemics or enemies, it is impossible 

 to say, yet it is probable that not many were attracted to the isolated, 

 exposed, initially quite unhealthful, and especially poor region, and 

 that the bulk of the population maintained or renewed itself princi- 

 pally through natural augmentation. 



3. RECENT DATA ON THE KHARGA OASIS PEOPLE 



Modern references to the Egyptians of the Great Oasis are almost 

 as scarce as those of the older times, and what there are, with one or 

 two exceptions, touch only indirectly on the people themselves. The 



1 During the writer's examination a man was found whose family claims 

 descent from a Roman soldier married to a native woman; and there are said 

 to be several such cases in the Oasis. 



