/ 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 659 



No doubt the territory over which the rulers of 'Alwah exerted authority 

 extended south of their capital, yet beyond Soba, in the archseologically un- 

 explored country south of the confluence of the two rivers, traces of northern 

 influence quickly become fewer and less distinct. Nevertheless, at the present 

 day among the hills between the White and Blue Niles the name Soba is still 

 known, being recognised as that of a series of great queens who ruled over a 

 mighty empire of the same name. I cannot say how wide the area may be 

 over which this belief is held ; my information was obtained at Jebel Gule 

 fifty miles east of Renk. At the foot of the hills are two settlements of a 

 people who call themselves Fung, but who are generally known as Hameg. 

 These people say that the great Queen Soba whom they worship was their 

 ancestress, but they also apply her name to certain stones which they regard 

 as sacre^l. The most important of these is a spherical water-worn stone 

 (about 18 inches in diameter) of a brownish colour, with large quartz veins 

 traversing it in every direction. This stone was stated to have been the 

 ' throne ' of Queen Sheba, and is still the ' chair of kingdom ' {kursi memlaka) 

 upon which every Hameg paramount chief {mangil) assumes office. Besides this 

 rock there are two others associated with Soba, and hence called Soba. Both 

 are weathered boulders, partly embedded in the soil at the side of the track 

 round the base of Jebel Gule. A prayer given me by a woman at one of these 

 rocks ran somewhat as follows : ' Grandmother Soba . . . permit ns to go on our 

 journey and return in safety.' There was obviously the utmost confusion in this 

 woman's mind between Soba the goddess and Soba the stone on which she had 

 just placed a handful of sand. Soba may also be asked to relieve sickness, and 

 is invoked during a dance held by the neighboiirs of a recentlj' delivered 

 woman, about the time when the young mother is allowed to leave her house 

 for the first time. Few will doubt that in the Soba of the Hameg belief there 

 is preserved the memory of such queens as Candace the ruler of the Sembritse, 

 grafted on the recollection of the great city, which to the Negroids of the 

 Gezira no doubt appeared to dominate the north. Nor do these traces of 

 ancient tradition stand alone ; at Jebel Moya near the Blue Nile some 150 miles 

 south of Khartum there is actual archfeological evidence of northern influence. 

 Here besides stone implements were found beads, and amulets, a number of 

 scarabs, and small plaques bearing Ethiopian and Egyptian cartouches ranging 

 from about 700 B.C. (25, 617), or perhaps going back to an even earlier date. 

 I may also note that on the as yet unexplored site of Faragab in northern 

 Kordofan, besides potsherds, stone implements and ivory objects I have found 

 a carnelian bead identified by Professor Petrie as of XVIII. dynasty make, 

 as well as dolomite and scolecite beads which are certainly not of Negro 

 ■\vorkmanship or character. 



Faragab must have been an important site for a considerable period, and 

 would well repay systematic examination; the mounds,, which are some ten feet 

 high, occupy a considerable area about a mile N.W. of the modern village. 

 The potsherds found in them are of special interest, and among them are the 

 remains of a type of pot which, as far as I can discover, is different from any 

 in use in Africa at the present day. This type was oblong and rather shallow, 

 decorated with geometrical patterns and produced at each end into a solid 

 mass more or less covered with designs ; its shape, in fact, was that of many 

 !Melanesian food bowls. Another interesting feature of the Faragab sherds is 

 that many of the larger vessels were made on string mats (21). The large 

 narrow-necked vessels found in such numbers in the necropolis at Meroe were 

 made by this method, which is still in use for water vessels in northern 

 Kordofan. 



These sites seem to mark the southern limit of Egyptian influence as far 

 as the actual transmission of objects derived from the north is concerned. 

 Of the racial affinities of the inhabitants of Faragab nothing is known, but 

 we are better informed concerning the old residents of Jebel Moya. The 

 cemeteries of this site have yielded the remains of a tall coarsely built Negro 

 or Negroid race with extraordinarily massive skulls and jaws (5). In a 

 general way they appear to resemble the coarser type of Nuba living in South 

 Kordofan at the present day, and it is significant that the cranial indices of the 

 men of Jebel Moya and the Nuba hills agree closely. Thus there is the clearest 



U TJ 2 



