JAPETIC STOCK. 249 



from Egypt to Sennaar, excluding Darfoor and Fezzan, are termed Bara- 

 bra, or Berberines, and by the Arabs, Nuba : * they are divided into 

 several tribes, as Kenous, Dongolawi, &c., speaking different dialects of 

 the same language. Their colour varies from a deep copper shade to 

 black, and their features have no resemblance to those of the Negroes. f 



Dr. Riippell says, that the inhabitants of Dar Dongola are divided 

 into two principal classes; viz., the Barabra, or the descendants of the old 

 Ethiopians, and the races of Arabs who have emigrated from the 

 Hedjaz. Though the ancestors of the Barabra, who, in the course of 

 centuries, have been repeatedly conquered by hostile tribes, must have 

 undergone some intermixture with people of foreign blood, yet he consi- 

 ders that, on an attentive examination, the old national physiognomy, which 

 their forefathers have marked upon colossal statues, and the bas-reliefs of 

 temples and sepulchres, will not fail to be perceived. A long oval coun- 

 tenance, a beautifully curved nose, somewhat rounded towards the top ; 

 proportionately thick lips, but not protruding excessively ; a retreating 

 chin, scanty beard, lively eyes, strongly frizzled, but never woolly hair ; 

 a remarkably beautiful figure, usually of middle size, and a bronze 

 colour, are the characteristics of the genuine Dongolawi. The same traits 

 of physiognomy are generally found among the Ababdi, the Bisheri, and a 

 part of the inhabitants of the province of Schendi, and partly, also, among 

 the Abyssinians. Dr. Riippell had, as he says, no opportunity of inquiring 

 into the relationship which the languages of these different races bear to 

 each other ; but he adds, that the Barabra language, which is spoken 

 from Gebel Deka to Wadi Ibrim, and through the whole of the Wadi 

 Kenus, is to be looked upon as a Nuba or Negro tongue, both from 

 its words consisting of a few syllables, nearly all ending in vowels, and 

 from its harmonious and soft modulation ; a conclusion which is con- 

 firmed by the fact that some words in the Barabra tongue, and in the 

 Kordofan idiom of Haraza, Gebel Atgiau, and Koldagi, are identical ; 

 and he assigns this circumstance as, in part, the reason why the Arabs 



* The natives of Kordofan are also termed Nuba, or Nouba, by the Arabs ; and Dr. Riippell con- 

 siders them as allied to the Berberines, an opinion which he founds on the affinity of their languages, 

 though, at the same time, he regards the Berberines as the descendants of the old Ethiopians* 

 Burckhardt says, "the name of Nouba is given to all the blacks coming from the slave countries to 

 the south of Sennaar, but that they are to be distinguished from Negroes by the softness of their 

 skin;" adding, that "their noses are less flat than those of the Negroes, their lips less thick, and 

 their cheek-bones not so ^prominent. Their hair is generally similar to that of Europeans, but 

 stronger, and always curled ; sometimes it is woolly. Their colour is less dark than that of the Negro, 

 and has a coppery tinge." M. Cailliaud's description of the Nouba slaves, brought from Bertat to 

 the south of Sennaar, is the same. They are not, in short, genuine Negroes. 



t " La couleur des Barabras tient en quelque sorte le milieu entre la noir d'ebene des habitans de 

 Sennaar et le teint basan6 des Egyptiens du Sayd. . . . Les traits des Barabras se rapprochent 

 effectivement plus de ceux des Europeens que ceux des Negres ; leur peau est d'un tissue extremement 

 fin ; sa couleur ne produit point un effect desagreable ; la nuance rouge qui y est melee leur donne 

 un air de sante et de vie. Us different des Negres par leurs cheveux qui sont longs et legerement 

 crepus, sans etre laineux." Costaz. 



VOL. I. 2 K 



