NO. I NATIVES OF KHARGA OASIS HRDLICKA 7 
racial elements, some of which doubtless mixed or fused with the 
population j 1 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. 
