242 HISTORY AKD ETHNOLOGY. 



Arabic. They appear to be mild and frank, and veracious towards stran- 

 gers. The metropoHs is called Wara. 



The Begharmese inhabit the country Begharmeh (Begharmi, Bagermi), 

 have their own language, and are mostly Mohammedans. They are proud 

 and warlike, but also industrious ; their cotton weaving and dyeing deserve 

 especial mention. This nation is continually at war with the Bornouese. 

 In the neighborhood live, also, the Mandarans, and the powerful, warlike 

 Mangowies, as well as the repulsive Biddomah. 



In the southern and eastern parts of Kordofan, and Dar-Fu bordering 

 thereon, and as far as the White Nile (Arabic Bahrel-Ahiad), and along 

 this river, there are various Nuba or negro tribes, speaking different lan- 

 guages. According to Riippel, four dialects are spoken in Kordofan by the 

 same number of nations {Koldagi, Chabun, Takele, and Deier, or Dahera), 

 who are all united under the name of Nuba. Besides the Nubas, we men- 

 tion the Fouries, Rungas, Begos or Dageous, Zeghawas, Kullas, Fertits, 

 Denkas, and Shillooks. The latter inhabit the mountainous country of 

 Bertrat, rich in rivers, which borders on Fertit, south of Kordofan and 

 Dar Fur, and to the west of Abyssinia. A portion of the last mentioned 

 nation, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, took possession of Sen- 

 naar, and erected the city of that name the metropolis of their kingdom, 

 as it was then constituted. Here they call themselves Fungi (signifying 

 " conquerors" in Arabic), whilst they give the names Ahbits, Abhd, or 

 Nuba, that is to say, negroes, to those of their tribe and language remain- 

 ing at home in Bertrat. To this nation probably belong the negro tribes 

 who live in the low swampy and forest districts at the foot of the Abys- 

 sinian highlands, and are called Shangallas by the Abyssinians. The 

 Shangallas prefer a savage existence by hunting, fishing, and robbery, and 

 are without social coherence, except in cases of single hordes or families. 

 They are rude and barbarous, subsist on the flesh of wild animals and fish, 

 are devoted to idolatry, dwell in caverns, and pay no attention to agricul- 

 ture and the rearing of cattle. With the Abyssinians they live in a state 

 of perpetual warfare. Like the Shillooks, they seem to worship the sun 

 and moon. The Koldagi-Nuba are husbandmen, and inhabit the central 

 and northern section of Kordofan. PI. 26, Jig. 12, represents Negroes of 

 Central Africa worshipping a fetish. PL 28, Jig. 3, Negroes about a slain 

 elephant. 



According to Lichtenstein, the inhabitants of the entire southern half of 

 Africa, from the equator, and even a point beyond it on the north, as far 

 as the confines of the Cape Land, or the territory of the Hottentots, belong 

 to a single stock, since they are united by a common language, spoken 

 in different dialects. The philologist Marsden has corroborated this 

 assertion. 



At present the western tribes, or Congo Negroes, are split into numerous 

 small states, but formerly belonged to a single nation. They lived in the 

 north-eastern section of the country, but extended their conquests so 

 widely as to advance to that part of the coast now called Congo, and drove 

 the tribes then dwelling there to the south. The conquerors called them- 

 414 



