APPENDIX II. 



473 



Beni-Amer 

 Halenga . 

 Amarar . 

 Ababdeh . 



\ Along north frontier, Aby&sinia ; both largely affected by Semitic elements, and 

 ) often wrongly classed with the Abyssinian Himyarites.* 



Along the coast from Suakin northwards to Ras-Benass, and thence inland. 

 Upper Egypt and Arabian Desert, from Kosier southwards to the neighbourhood 

 of Wady-Halfa ; partly assimilated to the Arab tribes on their northern 

 frontier. 



Retu 

 Copts 



Fellahin 



Siwahs . 



Egyptian Branch. 



The national name of the old Egyptians of Hamitic stock, and probably remotely 

 allied to the Semites ; now represented by the Copts and fellahin. 



Centred chiefly in ttie Assiut district, Upper Egypt, where some villages are 

 entirely occupied by them; elsewhere thinlj; scattered over the country. 

 Total population about 410,000. All are Christians of the Monophysite sect, 

 but have universally adopted the Arabic language. Coptic, representing the 

 Old Egyptian of the hieroglyphics, has long been extinct, and is now used 

 only as the sacred or liturgical language of the Coptic communities. It was 

 still current throughout Egypt in the lenth century ; but since the seventeenth 

 Arabic has been the exclusive language in the country. 



The agricultural element in Egypt ; are the direct descendants of the ancient Retu 

 or Egyptian slock, but have been largely modified by crossings, especially 

 ■with the Arab and Syrian Semites, who arrived in large numbers over 4,000 

 years ago, during the Hyksos dynasty, and who again overran and reduced 

 the whole country under the first Caliphs. In some rural districts the fellahin 

 still take the name of Aulad-Masr, or "Children of Egypt." AU are now 

 Mohammedans and speak Arabic exclusively ; population about 5,000,000. 



The inhabitants of the Siwah Oasis ; akin to the Berbera of the Sahara ; still speak 

 a Berber dialect ; all now Mohammedans. 



VI. UNCLASSIFIED GROUPS. 



Barea 



Basé or 



Kwiâma 



Birkit 



Masalit 



Abii-Sarib 



Tula 



Bakka 



Assiri 



TegeU 



TekeU 



Qadeyat 



Musabat 



Muserbat 



About middle course Mareb and headwaters of the Barka, north frontier 

 Abyssinia ; closely related in habits, type, &c., but of different speech (Nere- 

 bena and Bazena-aura) ; apparently the true aborigines of Abyssinia.f 



)■ Dar-Fur, chiefly towards Wadai frontier ; of doubtful aflinities (Barth, iii., p. 539). 



I'he aborigines of Kordofan, apparently extinct or absorbed in the Tegelé and 

 Nubas. 



I Large nation south Kordofan, usually classed as Nubas, but quite distinct, j 



In thirty villages, south and east of Mount Kordofan ; said to be of Eunj origin. 

 1 Obeid district, Kordofan ; claim descent from the Kunjara of Dar-Fur, where some 

 ) are still found ; all now speak Arabic exclusively. 



* The Halenga of the Mareb river are, however, said to be of undoubted Amharic descent. 



t " Sie sind wohl der Ueberrest des alten Abyssinischen Reiches vor der Einwanderung der Semi- 

 ten" (Munziger, op. cit. p. 76). The type of the Basé (whose true name is Kunama), as described and 

 figured by F. L. James (" Wild Tribes of the Sudan," London, 1883), seems distinctly Negroid. In the 

 Preface, p. 1, of that work, they are stated to be "of a totally different type, much blacker and more 

 closel}"- allied to the poor Negro than any of their neighbours." Yet Munziger asserts that the '' sogen- 

 nante Negertypus fehlt" (p. 467). The point must be finally decided by a study of their language, of 

 which nothing appears to be known. Of the Barea there are two divisions, those of the Hagr district 

 who call themselves Nere, and those of Mogareb. There is no general national name ; Barea, meaning 

 " slave," being simply an abusive term applied to them by the Abyssinians. 



X " Die Sprache von Tegelé hat mit dem Nuba nichts gemein ; ein genaueres Studium der erstern 

 hat mich Russegf^r's Classification entgegen, da von iiberzeugt" (Munziger, " Ostafrikanische Studien," 

 p. 551). The same writer, a personal observer, assures us (p, 557) that there is absolutely nothing of the 

 conveniional Negro type about them; and as their language is neither Arabic, Hamitic, nor Nuba, their 

 true position remains still to be determined. 



