4-OO 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



tapers, while the midwife scatters 

 grain and salt as food for the wicked 

 spirits. The child is shaken in the 

 sieve to make it fearless, and it is 

 held np to the sun to sharpen its 

 eyes. If it be a girl, the house will 

 be filled with women invited by the 

 mother; but if it be a boy, the father 

 also will have asked guests, and the 

 child is carried in its sieve to the 

 men's room, where the father sees 

 it for the first time. There it 

 is christened by the cadi sucking a 

 piece of sugar-candy and allowing the 

 fluid to trickle from his mouth into 

 that of the child, after which lie pro- 

 nounces its name. 



In addition to these two native 

 races, and to the Berbers, who live in 

 the Siwah Oasis, there are in Egypt 

 many foreigners, Arabs, Turks, 

 Armenians, and Jews. The main 

 commerce of the country and the 

 principal administrative appointments 

 are held by these people. But, with 

 the exception of the Arabs, these 

 races have remained as foreign ele- 

 ments. The Arabs, however, have 

 fused with the Fellabin to a con- 

 siderable extent, both by the adoption 



of Egyptian women into their harems and owing to the influence of Arabised tribes on the 



Egyptian borders. 



THE NUBIANS. 



The country of Nubia, between Abyssinia and Egypt, is occupied by a number of Negro, 

 Semitic, and Hamitic tribes, altered by intermixture. The Semitic group occurs mainly in the 

 Nile Valley, while the Hamites range over the plains between the Nile and the Eed Sea. As 

 a type of the former we may take the tribe of the Hamran Arabs of the Atbara, who are famous 

 as great hunters. 



The Hamrans physically resemble the other "Arabs" of this region, except that they have 

 an extra length of long curled hair, worn parted down the centre. As a race they are neither 

 powerful nor tall, but light and active; their average height is 5 feet 8 inches. Their 

 methods of hunting have been graphically described by Sir Samuel Baker, of whose account 

 the following is a summary. 



Their main weapon is a straight two-edged sword about 3 or 3| feet long. When 

 used in hunting, it has a lashing of cord for about 9 inches round the upper end, so that it 

 can be held by both hands. The Hamrans hunt elephants either on foot or on horseback. In 

 the former case the hunters generally try to stalk the animal during its midday sleep, and 

 with one blow of the sword cut off the trunk, whereby the elephant bleeds to death in about 

 an hour. Should it be impossible to catch the elephant asleep, they creep up behind and 

 sever the back sinew of the hind leg about a foot above the heel. This injury disables the 

 elephant, and a cut can be given at the other hind leg with greater safety. The animal is 



J'/wtu by Lerouxl 



[Atyien: 



TWO KABYLE WOMEN, ALGERIA. 



