EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 285 
total amount of both fexes, including jQaves, much exceeds fix 
thoufand. Of thefe the greater proportion are flaves. 
r 
The houfes are feparated from each other by wid^ intervals, 
as each ;nan choofes for building the fpot neareft to the ground 
he cultivates ; fo that in an extent of about two miles on a line, 
not much more than one hundred diftindl inclofures properly 
to be termed houfes are vifible. The number of villages Is 
confiderable ; but a few hundred fouls form the fum of the 
largeft. There are only eight or ten towns of great popu- 
lation. 
'' ' The people, of Dar-Fur are divided into thofe from the river, 
of whom I have already fpoken, fome few from the Weft, who 
are cither Fukkara, or come for the purpofes of trade. Arabs, 
who are very numerous, and fome of whom are eftablifhed in 
the country, and cannot quit it ; they are of many different 
tribes, but the greater number are thofe who lead a wandering 
kind of life on the frontiers, and breed camels, oxen, and horfes. 
Yet they are not, for the moft part, in fuch a ftate of dependence 
as always to contribute effedually to the ftrength of the mo- 
narch in war, or to his fupplies in peace. Thefe are Mahmid^ 
the Mahreay the beni-Fefara, the beni-Gerar^ and feveral others 
whofe names I do not recoiled. After the Arabs come the 
people of Zeghawa, which once formed a diftin£t kingdom, 
whofe chief went to the field with a thoufand horfemen, as it 
is faid, from among his own fubjeds. The Zeghawa fpeak 
a different dialed from the people of Fur. We muft then 
enumerate the people of Bego or Dageou, who are now fubjed 
to 
