468 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



TfiE royal family were originally Nfgrocs, and remain 

 fo ftill, when their mothers have been black like thcoifelvcs j., 

 but when the king has happened w. marry an Arab woman, 

 as he often does, the black colour of the father cedes to the 

 white of the mother, and the child is white. Such was the 

 cafe of Baady, therefore named Achmer ; Ins fatlicr R.ebat 

 was black, but marrying an Arab, his fon who fucceedcd 

 him was white. The lafi Baady who was flain at Teawa 

 was a perfedt Negro ; and by a ilave from his own country 

 he had the late king Naffer, w]\o, like his father, was a 

 perfed black. By an Arab of the tribe of Davema he had 

 Ifmain the prefent king, who is white, and fo it has inva- 

 riably happened in the royal family, as well as in private 

 ones. But what is llill more extraordinary, though equally 

 true, an Arab who is white\ marrying a black woman Have, 

 has infallibly white children. 1 will not fay that this is fo - 

 univerfal as that an example of the contrary may not be 

 found, but all the inftances I happened to fee confirmed 

 this. The Arabs, from choice, cohabit only v/ith Negro 

 women in the hot months of fummer, on account of the 

 remarkable coolnefs of their [\dns, in which they are faid 

 to differ from the Arab women ; but I never faw one black 

 Arab in the kingdom of Sennaar, notwithllanding the ge- 

 nerality of this intercourfe. 



There is a conllant mortality among the children in 

 and about this metropolis, infomuch that, inall appearance, 

 the people would be extin6l v/ere they not fupplied by a 

 number of Haves brought from all the different countries 

 to the fouthward. The men, however, are ihong and re- 

 markable for fize, but (liort-lived, owing, probably, to 

 their indulging themfelves in every fort of excefs from 



their 



