Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/298

 284 NOETH-EAST AFRICA. into the family circle would have the fatal result of contaminating their blood. Being an " elected " race, their chief ambition is to maintain their independence, and to live in peace. On this account their forefathers withdrew from the outer world, and they themselves seek to live isolated, protected from the marauding tribes by desert zones. They recognise the existence of one God alone, who manifests himself in the stars, the sun, and fire. When they pray they look towards the stars, or turn towards the rising or setting sun, or else light a great fire and watch the tongues of flame flashing up in the wind. Fire is to them a great purifier ; on burying their dead, the head turned towards the rising sun, they light a funeral pyre on the grave, as if to draw the soul of the departed into the fiery vortex. They also believe in the existence of a supreme demon, the god of darkness, and have recourse to sacrifices in order to conjure this dangerous enemy. The Zalabats are monogamists, but should a young girl fail to find a husband, or become a widow soon after marriage, it is the custom for her nearest relation to wed her ; thus it occasionally happens that a brother becomes the husband of his own sister. The government of the tribe is entirely regulated by their customs, which are interpreted by the elders ; by them also the chief is chosen, now in one family, now in another, no other obligation being imposed upon them than to choose the " best." The Jalins or Agalins of Senaar and the Atbara Valley are also looked upon as Arabs, and in this country no one doubts their noble descent ; the Arabic spoken by them is much purer than that of the other nomad tribes in Nubia. They are distinguished from all the other inhabitants of the country by their love of study, their commercial instincts, and their religious zeal, although they are not fanatics. The men and women on the banks of the Nile wear large hats of foliage to protect themselves from the sun. Many of the neighbouring populations who call them- selves Arabs, without probably being so, are in many respects really assimilated to the Arabs. The Bejas. The Bejas, the Blemmyes of the ancients, perhaps the Bonkas or Bongas whose name is found on the inscriptions of Aksum, constitute one of the ethnical groups represented by the greatest number of tribes. North and south of the Bazen territory they occupy nearly all the region comprised between the Blue Nile and the northern Abyssinian advanced ranges. Still farther north the bulk of the nation, which appears to have preserved its ethnical name under the form of Bishdrin, stretches far into Lower Nubia, occupying all the land comprised between the great western bend of the Nile and the Red Sea coast ; besides, several Beja tribes also live west of the main stream in Kordofan and even in Dar-F6r. The " Nubians " recently exhibited at the Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris were nearly all Bejas from Kassala and the surroimding district. The southern peoples south of the caravan route between Berber and Suakin, have no national cohesion with the kindred tribes. Most of them are even mutually hostile to each other, and never cease their quarrels except to unite against a foreign invader. Thus the