Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/576

 472 APPENDIX U. most multifarious complexity of tribes and peoples ever entrusted to the charge of a siugle Adininistrntion. The Bejas are the true autochthonous element in East Nubia, where they occupy the whole of the arid steppe-lands stretching from the Nile to the Red Sea, and from the Abyssinian frontier northwards as far as the parallel of Keneh and Kosseir in Upper Egypt.* Their main divisions are the Ababdeh, to be identified with Pliny's Gabadei, about the Egyptian frontier, the Hadendoah, Hassanab, and Demilab, along the coast - lands, and as far inland as the El-Matre wells on the Suakin-Berber route ; the Bishari proper, thence westwards to the Nile ; the Amarar and Ashraf north from the Suakin- Berber route, and here and there overlapping the Bishari ; the Kamlab, Halenga, and Beni-Amer along the Abyssinian frontier from the Nile to the Ked Sea in the order here given. By Linant Bey (Linant de Bellefonds), one of the most intelligent observers of these peoples, they are described as of European (Caucasic) type, often very handsome, of a bronze, swarthy, or light chocolate complexion, with long, crisp, but not woolly hair, generally falling in ringlets over the shoulders.f So also the Macrobes, of the same region, were long ago described by Herodotus (Book III.) as " the tallest and finest of men," to whom Cambyses sent envoys from their kindred of Elephantine Island, but failed to reduce. Nevertheless, through long contact with the surrounding African populations the present Bejas show here and there evident traces of Negro blood, conspicuous especially in the thick lips and broad nose of some of their tribes. On the other hand, the northern or Ababdeh branch have been largely assimilated even in speech to their Arab neighbours and hereditary foes, the Atuni (Ma'azeh) of Upper Egypt. J All are now more or less zealous Mohammedans, occupied chiefiy with camel- breeding and as caravan leaders, governed by hereditary sheikhs, and like their Haniitie kindred elsewliere, distinguished by their personal bravery and love of freedom. Jieja, the most collective national name, may be traced through the harder Arabic form Bega^ of the tenth century to the Bi'iffa {^ovyafirai) of the Greek and Axumite (Geez) inscriptions, and thence perhaps to the Buka of the hieroglyphic records. These fiovyatnai appear to be identical with the ftKefi/xvis (Kopt. Balnemmoui) who are already mentioned by Strabo, || and who, from the third to the sixth century of the new era, infested the southern frontiers of Egypt. Often defeated by Aurelian and Probus, they nevertheless so continued to harass these outljdng provinces of the empire, that Diocletian was at last induced to withdraw the Roman garrisons from the regions of the Cataracts, replacing them by the warlike Nobatae tribes from the great oasis of Kargey in Upper Egypt. Hadendoa . • ) -o j o i • £^f^a,i ^^t^^®" Siiakin and the Nile, thence sou hwanls to t^e AbysRiniiin frontier. account of this ptople in his " History of E ypt " (end of fourteenth century) is drawn from the Ibthnkhri (tenth century) and other older records. "Le pays qu'haldte ce peuple commence au bourg nomm6 Kharbah, pr^s duquel est la mine d'emfraude. Le pays des Bedjas se tt-rmine aux premieres frontieies de I'AbysBinie. Ce peuple habite I'iiiterieur de la prpsqu'ilc dEpypte jusqu'nnx bords de la mer, du c6t4 qui regardb les iles de Souaken, de Baza (Mass&wah), et de Uthlak." (Quatrem^re's translation, in "Memoires sur I'Egj-pte," 1811, ii. p. 135.) t *' I/Etbaye, pays habite par les Bichaiieh " (PhHs 1868). X 'Ihese Ab.ibdeh are very widespread, stretching from K n h s uthwurils to the Second Cataract at Wady- Haifa, where they m«et the Kensi Nubians on the west, and the Bishari on the east. Th»ir chief tiibes, some of which also appear to speak Nubian, are the Nemriib, Gawalich, Shaw&hir (Kha- w&hi), Abudcin, Meleikab, Tok^ira, and Oshabab. Rus8eger(" Reise," ii. Pari 3, p. 193) estimates their number at about 40,000, nearly equally distributed between E.!ypt and Nuba. • § The Arabic 9^, now generally pronounced j, was originally hard, like the Hebrew ^, as we see in the geographical term Nejdy by the local tribes still pronounced Xegd. Hence Bega = Beja. II Ao'tird Si rd irpo^ vorov, TpoyKolvrai, fiXifXfivii^, Kai No(//J(U sai Miydfiapoi o'l inip Svijftjc A.'0iojr«c- (Book 17, 63.)
 * Thiit this region was occupied by th« Beja from remote times appenrs evident fromMacrizi. wht^