March 6, 191 3] 



NATURE 



THE TRIBES OF NORTHERN AND 

 CENTRA I. K< >RDOFAN.i 



TN many ways this is a most interesting and 

 *- suggestive volume, nor can its signifii 

 be measured entirely by the number of new and 

 important facts recorded in it. If we except Mr. 

 J. W. Crowfoot's archaeological studies, not only 

 is this the first piece of precise work of any magni- 

 tude dealing with an ethnological 

 subject produced by an officer in 

 the service of the Anglo-Egyptian 

 Sudan, but since the Government 

 has borne the expense of its pub- 

 lication it furnishes a further 

 example of that enlightened spirit 

 which has already led the Govern- 

 ment to find the funds necessary 

 to start an ethnographical survey 

 on a small scale. Considering that 

 the part played by the Sudan 

 Government in the production of 

 this volume is perfectly well 

 known, it is perhaps a pity that 

 the book contains no definite 

 statement on the subject, since its 

 appearance may be looked upon 

 as the first fruits of the sensible 

 forward scientific policy in favour 

 in the Sudan. This, indeed, is 

 the aspect of general public im- 

 portance with which ethnologists 

 and historians are most con- 

 cerned. 



There is, of course, another 

 point of view, which no doubt 

 specially appealed to the repre- 

 sentatives of the Intelligence De- 

 partment. During the years of 

 residence and travel in Kordofan 

 Mr. MacMichael accumulated a 

 fund of knowledge concerning 

 the quarrels, wanderings, and 

 relationships of both the seden- 

 tary and nomad Arab tribes of 

 the province. Part of this had 

 perforce to be acquired as the 

 country was opened up by the 

 new administration, but the re- 

 mainder of the reallv vast stores 

 of hitherto unpublished and re- 

 condite historical information 

 brought together in this volume 

 was collected as a labour of love, 

 and constitutes a corpus of in- 

 formation concerning the his- 

 tory, sociology, or ethnology of 

 Kordofan. While all interested 

 in these subjects should be grateful, Mr. Mac- 

 Michael's successors responsible for the present 

 and future administration of the province will 

 most profit by his labours, for it is not too much 

 to say that a collection of facts such as this, put 



in the hands of an intelligent newcomer and pro- 

 perly used, must reduce the doubts and difficulties 

 of administration by 50 per cent. 



Southern Kordofan, Dar Nuba, does not come 

 within Mr. MacMichael's purview; in tins h< 

 follows the native idea, for neither Arabs nor 

 blacks include Dar Nuba in Kordofan. In spite 

 of this, Mr. MacMichael has rightly included the 

 Baqqara, and he has added to the interest and 



m 



j* 



A Kababish c.i 

 camping j 



! " utfa " ready 

 o another. (Nc 

 itral Kordofan.' 



1 "The Tribe 

 Michael. Pp. 



of Northern and Central Kordofan.' By H. A. Ma 

 v+259. (Cambridge University Pres^. 191 :.) Pri 



NO. 2262, VOL. 91] 



scientific value of the book by chapters on Jebel 

 Midob and the little-known Zaghawa. The 

 former is a hill massif some forty miles long on 

 about the same latitude as Omdurman, but so far 

 west as to be in Darfur territory. From the 

 details concerning its inhabitants, now for the first 

 time available, there can be little doubt that these 

 non-Moharnmedan "black black slaves" (as the 



