THE HOTEM, ZABALAT, AND JALIN TEIBES. 233 



Notwithstanding the efforts of the nation to avoid traders and foreigners, who 

 are only allowed to penetrate into the country under the personal responsibility oi 

 a citizen, their customs are becoming modified, and they are on the eve of great 

 social and political changes. The skin aprons are already being replaced by the 

 Abyssinian toga and the Arabian shirt. Slavery even has been introduced into the 

 Bazen country, although under a very mild form. If the slave either marries or 

 runs away he becomes free by right. Undoubtedly the communities of the Mareb 

 and of the Takkazeh will soon have lost the independence of which they are justly 

 so jealous, and a new destiny will then commence for them. Their initiation will 

 doubtless be a hard one, and these populations, who were till recently the happiest 

 in Africa, will have to traverse a sea of blood before they can unite with their 

 neighbours, and thus constitute a great nation. The descriptions that James and 

 other hunters give of the Kunama already differ greatly from those of Munzinger ; 

 but far from civilising them, their neighbours have so far rendered these tribes more 

 savage. 



The Hotem, Zabalat, and Jalix Tribes. 



Side by side with the Bazen, and other " Shangallas," live other peoples possibly 

 of kindred origin, although even those whose physical type shows unmistakable signs 

 of the predominance of Negro blood call themselves Wold-el- Arab, or "Sons of 

 Arabs." If only the chiefs, the descendants of conquering families from the 

 Arabian peninsula, succeed in preserving their genealogy and their language, the 

 tribes, although of native origin, claim Arab descent and are frequently taken for 

 Arabs. Besides, there are imdoubtedly populations living west of the Bed Sea who 

 have come from the east, and who are known to have crossed the Bed Sea within 

 historic or recent times. Thus in the vicinity of Akiq, the Hotem Mohammedans, 

 a tribe armed with guns, are of pure Arab blood. So recently as 1865 their numbers 

 were largely increased by fresh immigrants from the coast of Yemen. The voyage 

 from coast to coast presents little diflBculty, and if the English vessels did not 

 carefully watch all the ports, the relations between Arabia and the Sudan would be 

 sufiiciently frequent to rapidly modify the political equilibrium of these regions. 



Amongst the true Arab tribes of the Sudan, the missionary Beltrame mentions 

 the Zabalat pastors, the " Handful of Men," or, as they are also called, the Abu- Jerid, 

 or " Fathers of the Palms," who Kve between the Bender and the Blue Nile, above 

 Senaar. They are said to have come from Yemen before the conversion of their 

 kinsmen to Islam, for they are not Mohammedans, and no traces of the Mussulman 

 practices are to be found in their cult. They are fire-worshippers, as were so many 

 South Arabian tribes before the advent of Mohammed, and as were also the Blem- 

 myes, who, according to Procopius, were in the habit of sacrificing men to the sun. 

 Their complexion is lighter than that of the neighbouring populations, and betraj's 

 a reddish hue ; according to Lejean, they have blue eyes and light smooth hair. 

 The gum obtained from the sunt acacias enters largely into their diet. They 

 jealously preserve the purity of their race, and they claim never to have intermarried 

 with foreign tribes. They do not tolerate slavery, because the introduction of servants 



