474 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



tremity of the rains, was a place properly chofen for this 

 purpofe by the Arab prince before the conqueft of the 

 Funge, (for his troops there cut them off, either from the 

 fands, or the fertile country, as he pleafed), yet many of 

 them might have remained behind at Shaddly, and to the 

 weflward, free from the terror of the fly, and confequently 

 without any neceffity of advancing fo far north as Gerri, 

 and there fubjeding themfelves to contribution. 



In this cxtenfive plain, near Shaddly, arife two mountain- 

 ous diftrias, the one called Jibbel Moia, or the Mountain of 

 Water, which is a ridge of confiderable hills nearly of the 

 fame height, clofely united ; and the other Jibbel Segud, 

 or the Cold Mountain, a broken ridge compofed of parts, 

 fome high and fome low, without any regular form. Both 

 thefe enjoy a fine climate, and are full of inhabitants, but of 

 no confiderable extent. They ferve for a protedion to the 

 Daheera, or farms of Shaddly and Wed Aboud. They are 

 alfo fortreffes in the way of the Arabs, to detain and force 

 them to payment in their flight from the cultivated coun- 

 try and rains to the dry lands of Atbara. Each of thefe dif- 

 trids is governed by the defcendant of their ancient and na- 

 tive princes, who long refiflcd all the power of the Arabs, 

 having bothhorfe and foot. They continued to be Pagans 

 till the conquefl: of the Funge. Bloody and unnatural fa- 

 erifices were faid to have been in ufe in thefe mountainous 

 fl:ates,with horrid circumfliances of cruelty, till Abdelcader, 

 fon of Amru, the third of the kings of Sennaar, about the 

 year 1554,, befieged firfl the one and then the other of thefe 

 princes in their mountain, and forced them to furrender ; 

 and, having faflened a chain of gold to each of their ears, 



he 



