of Edinburgh, Session 1884-85. 
205 
Monday, §th July 1885. 
Sheriff FORBES IRVINE, Vice-President, 
in the Chair. 
The following Communications were read : — 
1. Notes on the For Tribe of Central Africa. By Dr Robert TV 
Felkin, F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S., Fellow of the Anthropological 
Societies of London and Berlin, &c. (Plate IX.) 
It may be within the recollection of the Fellows of the Society, 
that in December 1883 I had the honour of reading, in this room, a 
paper on the Madi Tribe of Central Africa. 
I have now to lay before you a similar paper on the For Tribe, 
which, as in the former case, I have written from notes of my own 
observations when in the country, and from information supplied to 
me by people of the tribe. I am able on this occasion to introduce 
to your notice a For boy, who has been with me since 1880, when I 
was in Darfur. The boy was rescued from slavery by General 
Gordon in 1878, and he entered my service at Dara in 1879. I 
hope it will add to any interest you may take in my remarks to see 
the only representative of his tribe, who, as far as I know, has 
reached Europe. 
The country of Darfur is bounded on the south by 9° 30' 
N. lat. ; on the north by the 16th degree N. lat. ; on the east by 
about the 22° 30' E. long. ; and on the west by the 28th degree 
E. long. 
Darfur, or Darfor, means the land of the Fors, who were once the 
owners and sole inhabitants of the whole province. They have, 
however, been driven back into the western part of the country, the 
remainder of which is now inhabited by various invaders, namely, 
the Homr Arabs in the north, the Bertis Turkruri in the east, in the 
south-east the Rezigat, w T hile in the south the Baggara and the 
Turkruri are mingled. There has been no intermarriage between 
the Fors and the strangers, and the regular features and lighter 
colour of the latter at once proclaim their Arab origin. 
The whole population of Darfur may be roughly estimated at 
