Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/369

 INHABITANTS. 208 whole region, even in the mud of the Nile and on the rocky slopes of the moun- tains. But they cannot stand a change of climate ; they die out of Nuhia, and even in the country itself have been greatly diminished since they have been so much sought after by the Eg^'ptian officers. The camels of the Bisharins and Ababdehs are no less famous for their speed than the horses of Dongola. Inhabitants. Often conquered, and consisting of little more than the double riverain zone of the Nile, Nubia is peopled with tribes of very mixed origin, such as Ilamites, Arabs, Nigritians, and Turks. Nevertheless the basis of the Nubian population may be said to consist of Bar&bras, who call themselves " the people of the soil." Some authors have considered this term Barabra synonymous with that of Ber- beri, applied to the Tuaregs and to the Kabyles of the Sahara and Mauritania, who are related by their speech to the people of Siwah, an oasis bordering on Egypt. But so great is the difference of colour, type, and mental qualities of these populations, that it would be difficult to believe them related, without going back to times far anterior to recorded history. According to a general but probably groundless opinion, the term Berberi, Barabra, corrupted to Berberins or Barbarins in the language of the Franks living at Cairo, is merely the Greek or Latin word "barbarian" applied to the black populations who live above the cataracts beyond civilised Egypt. The principal Nigritian tribes, mentioned over forty centuries ago on the pillars of the temples as having dwelt on the spot where the present Barabras now live, are designated by the name of Uaua, a term which seems to convey a species of contempt. It is just such a word as would be applied to a nation of "yelpers," a name differing little from that of " stammerers," which for the Greeks had the primitive meaning of the term •' barbarians." But since the name of Beraberata has been discovered on the Theban lists of tribes, it is hardly to be doubted that the term " Bai-4bra " is derived from it. But however this may be, the Uaua Negroes, as well as the Beraberata, have become the Bar&bras of our days, but not without diverse crossings with different populations. From the twelfth to the twentieth dynasty the whole of the Nile Valley, colonised by the Egyptians, had become a Retu land in language and race. The reactionary movement scarcely commenced before the Persian epoch, but it was not till the Roman period that the native elements again took the upper hand. During the government of Diocletian the Blemmyes, the present Bcjas, and more especially the Bisharins, invaded the region of Nubia and settled there in a compact body. It was found necessary to withdraw the Roman garrisous, and in order to replace them an appeal had to be made to the warlike tribes called the NubotoD, who were very probably of the same stock as the Nubas of KordofAn. From these people the Uauas and Blemmyes have received the dialects which still exist, though greatly corrupted by Arab terms.