PREFACE. 
XXV 
Vi.Fur feems to be an Arabic name, fignifying in 
that tongue a Deer ; and, it may be conjedlured, 
has been applied to that people in the fame fenfe as 
Towjhdn^ a hare, is by the Turks to the natives of 
the Greek iflands — from the rapidity of their flight 
before the Mohammedan conquerors. 
Nothing can well be more vague than the ufe of 
the vjord Soudan or Sudan. Among the Egyptians 
and Arabs Ber-es-Soudan is the place where the 
caravans arrive, when they reach the firft habitable 
part of Dar-Fur : but that country feems its 
eaftern extremity ; for I never heard it applied to 
Kordofan or Sennaar. It is ufed equally in Dar- 
Fur to exprefs the country to the Weft; but on the 
whole feems ordinarily applied to fignify that part 
of the land of the blacks neareft Egypt. 
An innovation as to the orthography of fome 
proper names, it is fuppofed, will not appear afFe(5led 
or improper, when the reafon is explained ; as Ka- 
hira^ Damiatt^ Rajhid^ for Cairo^ Damietta^ Ro~ 
fetto. It is of fome ufe in appellatives to approxi- 
mate to the pronunciation of the natives, and there 
■ . can 
