472 APPENDIX II. 



most multifarious complexity of tribes and peoples ever entrusted to the charge of a 

 single Administration. 



The Bejas are the true autochthonous element in East Nubia, where they occupy the 

 whole of the. arid steppe-lands stretching from the Nile to the Red Sea, and from the 

 Abyssinian frontier northwards as far as the parallel of Keneh and Kosseir in Upper 

 Egypt.* Their main divisions are the Ababdeh, to be identified with Pliny's Gabadei, 

 about the Egyptian frontier, the Hadendoah, Hassanab, and Demilab, along the coast - 

 lands, and as far inland as the El-Matre wells on the Suakin-Berber route ; the Bishari 

 proper, thence westwards to the Nile ; the Amarar and Ashraf north from the Suakin- 

 Berber route, and here and there overlapping the Bishari ; the Kamlab, Halenga, and 

 Beni-Amer along the Abyssinian frontier from the Nile to the Eed Sea in the order 

 here given. 



By Linant Bey (Linant de Bellefonds), one of the most intelligent observers of these 

 peoples, they are described as of European (Caucasie) type, often very handsome, of a 

 bronze, swarthy, or light chocolate complexion, with long, crisp, but not woolly hair, 

 generally falling in ringlets over the shoulders.f So also the Macrobes, of the same 

 region, were long ago described by Herodotus (Book III.) as '' the tallest and finest of 

 men," to whom Cambyses sent envoys from their kindred of Elephantine Island, but 

 failed to reduce. Nevertheless, through long contact with the surrounding African 

 populations the present Bejas show here and there evident traces of Negro blood, 

 conspicuous especially in the thick lips and broad nose of some of their tribes. On the 

 other hand, the northern or Ababdeh branch have been largely assimilated even in 

 speech to their Ai'ab neighbours and hereditary foes, the Atimi (Ma'azeh) of Upi^er 

 Egypt.;]: All are now more or less zealous Mohammedans, occupied chiefly with camel- 

 breeding and as caravan leaders, governed by hereditary sheikhs, and like their 

 Hamitic kindred elsewhere, distinguished by their personal bravery and love of freedom. 



Beja, the most collective national name, may be traced through the harder Arabic 

 form Bega^ of the tenth century to the Bu^a {/Sovyaetrat) of the Greek and Axumite 

 (Geez) inscriptions, and thence perhaps to the Buka of the hieroglyiDhic records. These 

 JSovyaenai appear to be identical with the [iXénixv^^ (Kopt. Balnemmoui) who are already 

 mentioned by Strabo, || and who, from the third to the sixth century of the new era, 

 infested the southern frontiers of Egypt. Often defeated by Aurelian and Probus, they 

 nevertheless so continued to harass these outlying provinces of the empire, that 

 Diocletian was at last induced to withdraw the Roman garrisons from the regions of the 

 Cataracts, replacing them by the warlike Nobatse tribes from the great oasis of Kargey 

 in Upper Egypt. 



Hadeiidoa . • ) -n . o i • 



;^lgf^^yl i iiet-weeii buakm and the Nile, thence southwards to the Abyssinian frontier. 



* Thiit this region was occtipied by the Beja from remote times appears evident fromMacrizi, whose 

 account of this people in his " History of Egypt " (end of fourteenth century) is drawn from the Isthakhri 

 (tenth century) and other older records. "Le pays qu'habite ce peuple commence au bourg nommé 

 Kharbah, près duquel est la mine d'émeraude. Le pays des Bedjas se termine aux premieres frontières 

 de l'Abyssinie. Ce peuple habite l'intérieur de la presqu'île d'Egypte jusqu'aux bords de la mer, du côté 

 qui regarde les îles de Souaken, de Baza (Massâwah), et de Lehlak." (Quatremère's translation, in 

 " Mémoires sur l'Egypte," 1811, ii. p. 135.) 



t " L'Etbaye, pays habité par les Bichaiieh" (Paris, 1868). 



X These Ababdeh are very widespread, stretching from Keneh southwards to the Second Cataract 

 at Wady-Halfa, where they m^et the Kensi Nubians on the west, and the Bishari on the east. Their 

 chief tribes, some of which also appear to speak Nubian, are the Nemràb, Gawalich, Shawahir (Kha- 

 wahi), Abudein, Meleikab, Tokâra, and Oshabab. Russeger (" Reise," ii. Part 3, p. 193) estimates their 

 number at about 40,000, nearly equally distributed between Egypt and Nubia. 



§ The Arabic 9^, now generally pronounced J, was originally hard, like the Hebrew ^, as we see 



in the geographical term JVcJd, by the local tribes still pronounced Ne^d. Hence Btffa = BeJa. 



II AoîVà 5t rà Trpoç vôtov, TpoyXoëvrat, jiXéfifivtç, xai tiov^ai Kai Miyâ/iapoi oi. inrefj ^vrivqç 

 AlOiûTTiç (Book 17, § 53.) 



