Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/297

 TIIE UOTEM, ZABALAT, AND JALIN TRIBES. , t88 Notwithstanding the efforts of the nation to avoid traders and foreigners, who are only allowed to penetrate into the country under the personal responsibility of a citizen, their customs are becoming modified, and they are on the eve of great social and political changes. The skin aprons are already being replaced by the Abyssinian toga and the Arabian shirt. Slavery even has been introduced into the Bazen country, although under a very mild form. If the slave either marries or runs away he becomes free by right. Undoubtedly the communities of the Mareb and of the Tukkazeh will soon have lost the independence of which they are justly so jealous, and a new destiny will then commence for them. Their initiation will doubtless be a hard one, and these populations, who were till recently the happiest in Africa, will have to traverse a sea of blood before they can unite with their neighbours, and thus constitute a great nation. The descriptions that James and other hunters give of the Kunama already differ greatly from those of Munzinger ; but far from civilising them, their neighbours have so far rendered these tribes more savage. The Hotem, Zabalat, and Jalix Tribes. Side by side with the Bazen, and other " Shangallas," live other peoples possibly of kindred origin, although even those whose physical type shows unmistakable signs of the predominance of Negro blood call themselves Wold-el- Arab, or "Sons of Arabs." If only the chiefs, the descendants of conquering families from the Arabian peninsula, succeed in preserving their genealogy and their language, the tribes, although of native origin, claim Arab descent and are frequently taken for Arabs. Besides, there are undoubtedly populations living west of the Red Sea who have come from the east, and who are known to have crossed the Red Sea within historic or recent times. Thus in the vicinity of Akiq, the Hotem Mohammedans, a tribe armed with guns, are of pure Arab blood. So recently as I860 their numbers were largely increased by fresh immigrants from the coost of Yemen. The voj'age from coast to coast presents little difficulty, and if the English vessels did not carefully watch all the ports, the relations between Arabia and the Sudan would be sufficiently frequent to rapidly modify the political equilibrium of these regions. Amongst the true Arab tribes of the Sudan, the missionary Bcltrame mentions the Zabalat pastors, the " Handful of Men," or, as they are also called, the Abu-Jerid, or " Fathers of the Palms," who live between the Dender and the Blue Nile, above Senaar. They are said to have come from Yemen before the conversion of their kinsmen to Islam, for they are not Mohanmiedans, and no traces of the Mussulman practices are to be found in their cult. They are fire- worshippers, as were so many South Arabian tribes before the advent of Mohamme<l, and as were also the Blem- myes, who, according to Procopius, were in the habit of sacrificing men to the sun. Their complexion is lighter than that of the neighbouring populations, and betrays a reddish hue ; according to Lejean, they have blue eyes and light smooth hair. The gum obtained from the sunt acacias enters largely into their diet They jealously preserve the purity of their race, and they claim never to have intermarried with foreign tribes. They do not tolerate slavery, beca use the introduction of servants