They speak different dialects of the 

 same language, and are called by the 

 Arabs Berbers or Barabras. They 

 have long been subject to foreigners, 

 and are poor and ignorant. In the 

 villages, round huts of mud or loose 

 stones, and in towns, houses around 

 an open court, in the Egyptian fash- 

 ion, are their habitations. A few 

 earthen jars and dishes, a hand- 

 mill, a hatchet, and some slicks to 

 form a rude loom, constitute the 

 whole furniture. A blue shirt or a 

 woolen cloak and white cap are the 

 attire of the men ; the women are 

 wrapped up in linen rags or woolen 

 gowi.s, with earrings and bracelets 

 of glass or straw. The weapons 

 are a club, a lance, and a shield 

 Water-wheels. (Page 860.) covered with hippopotamus skin. 



The Nubians are well made, muscular, strong, and handsome, with thick but not woolly hair, 

 and little beard. The women are often handsome, and have generally a sweet expression and 

 engaging manners ; they are favorably distinguished fiom the Egyptians by their superior 

 morality. The complexion of the Nubians is quite dark, but they have not the negro physi- 

 ognomy. Coarse woolen mantles and mats, drinking-cups, and dishes woven from palm 

 leaves, are their only manufactures. Most of the Nubians are Mahometans ; but in the south 

 are some heathens ; the Arabs, who are the ruling people in many of the States, are also 

 Mahometans. The ruling people in Sennaar are the Sliillooks, a black race from Nigritia, 

 who conquered the country in the 16th century. The wandering tribes of the eastern deserts 

 are Bisharians., Mabdcs^ &c. They are often at war with each other, and are faithless and 

 treacherous to strangers. 



The chief article of food is a coarse cake made o( dourra. Much tobacco is raised. Palm 

 wine is used, and also a liquor called hoiiza^ resembling beer, and made of dourra or barley. 

 Burckhardt describes the Nubians as a well-formed race, though lean, and the women, though 

 not handsome, are the most virtuous of all the females of the East. The inhabitants with 

 whom Burckhardt traveled were not addicted to phindering or pilfering. That part of Nubia 

 which borders on the Nile, is strewed with antiquities, generally subterranean, or excavated 

 from rocks. One of the most interesting is the temple of Ebsambal ; it is cut from a perpen- 

 dicular cliff. At the entrance are six erect colossal figures, measuring, from the ground to the 

 knee, six feet. Near the temple are four other statues nearly buried in sand. The one which 

 is the most exposed, measures seven yards across the shouklers. 



The people of Sennaar are nearly negroes. Some are idolaters, others Mahometans, but 

 they eat pork freely. Sennaar is included in the recent conquests of the Pasha of Egypt. 

 The Shillooks , a race of negroes, in 1504 invaded the country and rendered the inhabitants 

 tributary. 



6. History. Nubia was known to the ancients under the name of Ethiopia, and appears to 

 have been at a very early period, the seat of a powerful empire and a civilized people. 

 Egypt was repeatedly conquered from this quarter, and, indeed, according to some, she derived 

 her arts and wisdom from Ethiopia. Neither the Persians nor the Romans, the Saracens nor 

 the Turks who reduced Egypt, were able to subdue this country, which early received and 

 long retained the Christian religion, but by some unknown agency has in modern times become 

 Mahometan. But split up into numerous petty States, and torn by the dissensions of rival 

 chieftains, Nubia has sunk into a low state of barbarism, and the late conquest by Mehemet Ali 

 may be the first step of its regeneration. 



NUBIA. 



