250 BIMANA. 



settled in the country designate the proper inhabitants of the province 

 of Dongola, and especially the natives southward of Assuam, whose 

 mother-tongue is the Barabra, by the general name of Nuba a term 

 which the Barabra never use themselves, it being the national name of 

 the free Negroes of Kordofan.* 



The origin, at a remote epoch, of the Barabra from the Kordofan 

 Nouba race, is an opinion, observes Dr. Prichard, countenanced by the 

 testimony of ancient writers. " In the time of Eratosthenes, nearly 

 three centuries before the Christian era, the Nubae were a distinct and 

 powerful race ; they inhabited the left bank of the Nile from Meroe, the 

 Atbara of modern geography, to the ay/ccoz/es, elbows, or angular windings 

 of the Nile. It is scarcely probable that a rude people, separated, so 

 long ago as this account would imply, from the great body of their 

 African kindred, could retain an oral language with such constancy that 

 its resemblance to the dialect of the Nouba, or Koldagi, could still be 

 recognised ; but we have proof that subsequent emigrations were made 

 from the countries in the northern desert. Procopius states, that when 

 the Emperor Diocletian visited Ethiopia, finding that the country above 

 Egypt yielded a scanty revenue, and was not worth the trouble of defend- 

 ing, he gave up a territory, of seven days' journey in extent, to the 

 Nobatae. The whole region from Auxomis (Axum), to Elephantine, 

 which an expeditious traveller might traverse in thirty days, was, at that 

 time, principally inhabited by two nations, the Nobatae and the Blemmyes, 

 the latter of whom harassed the Roman frontier. The Blemmyes dwelt 

 in the inland parts, at a distance from the Nile : the Nobatae were 

 brought by Diocletian from their former abode, the city of Oasis, and 

 were induced to settle in the valley of the Nile, immediately above 

 Elephantine. The Blemmyes, as we shall find, were the ancestors of 

 the Bishari, and there can be no doubt that the Nobatae are the Nouba, 

 so called by the Arabs, or the Barabra. It has been conjectured that the 

 Oasis, here described as the original country of the Nobatae, may have 

 been Abu-Haraza, where the Koldagi language and people are still pre- 

 dominant, or even Kordofan itself. The difference of names between 

 Nubae and Nobatae is probably the result of accident." 



The Bishari, or Bejawy race, is spread through the eastern deserts 

 of Nubia, and the mountain districts eastward of Egypt, along the borders 

 of the Red Sea. It is divided into different tribes, or nations, of which 

 one, the Hadharebe, subdivided into numerous clans, occupies the country 



* " The population of Kordofan consists of three different races, who are distinct, and speak dif- 

 ferent languages : 1. Bedouin Arabs from the Hedjaz. 2. Colonists from Dongola. 3. The original 

 natives of the country, who are Nouba, or Negroes." The latter are divided into the free Pagan 

 Nouba, who inhabit the hill country southward of Obeid, and the conquered Mohammedan Nouba 

 of the plain-country, near Obeid, and to the northward, and who, though they speak their own lan- 

 guage, affect the Arabic. Their native language is identical with that of Haraza and Koldagi. 



