Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/577

 APPENDIX IL 478 BettuAm$r Amarmr. AbabiUk. Alung north fmntior, AbyMinU ; both lugvly sffaciod by Semitic dlenMatft, atid ofl«n wrunfrly cUmwcI with the Abywininn HimyaritM.* Along the ooe«t from Sunkin northward* to Hoe-BenaM, and thence inland. Upper Egypt and ArAbinn Deport, frorn Koeier aoathwarda Ut tho nei|ihboarfaond of Wady-Ualfa ; partly aatirailated to the Arab tribva on thtir uorttieni frontier. Rttm Cop(t FcUahtH Siwah* EotrriAX Branch. The national name of tho old Egyptians of Hamitic stock, and probably remotely allied to the Semites; now represented by tho Copts nnd fellabin. CentriMl chiefly in the Assiut district, Upper Egypt, wl.cre sumu rillagea are entirely occupied by them; elsewheru thinly scattered over the country. Total population aljout 410,000. All are Chriatians of the Monophysite sect, but have universally adopted the Arabic lan^iUKti. Coptic, representing tho Old E^y|itiiin of the hieroglyphics, has long been extinct, and is now used only as the sacred or liturgical lan^^uage of the Coptic communities. It was still current throughout Egypt in tho tenth century ; but since the seventeenth Arabic has be^-n tlio exclusive language in the country. The agiicultur.ll element in Ettypt ; are the direct descendant* of the ancient Reta or Kgvptian sio -k, but have been largely modified by crosHings, especially with the Arab and Syrian Semite^, who arrived in large numbers over 4,000 years ago, during the Hykoos dyuiuity, and who again overran and redticed the whole country under the fint Caliphs. In some rural districts the fellahln still take the name of Aulnd-3Lisr, or "Children of Egypt." All are now Muhanimedans and Hpeiik Arabic exclusively ; population H'>oiit 5,000,000. Tho inhabitints uf the Siwah Oa^is ; akin to the Berbera of the Saliara ; still itp^ak a Berber dialect ; all now Mohammedans. VI. UNCLASSIFIED GaOUPS. Sarfa Bast- or • Knudma. hirkU ilatalit Ahu-Sarih Tain Bakka Atttri Tegelt Tekeli (^lUyat . Mumbat . Muterhat . About middle course Mareb and hf>adwaters of the Barka, north frontier Abyssinia ; closely rtlated in habits, type, &c., but of different speech (Xeie- bi-na and Bazena-aura) ; apparcully the true aboiiginosof Abyssinia.f >Dar-Fur, chiefly towards Wadai frontier; of doubtful affinities ( Bartb, iii.,p. 539). '1 he aboi-igiries of Kordofan, apparently extinct or absorbed in the Tegel6 and Nubos. I Large nation south Kordofan, usually classed as Nubas, but quito distinct.^ In thirty villagps, south and east of Mount Kordofan ; said to be of Funj origin. Obeid distiict, Kordofan ; claim descent from the Kuujara of Dar-Pur, where some i are still found ; ail now speak Arabic exclusively. t " Sie sind wohl der Ueberrest dos alien Abyssinischen R<>iches vor der Einwandenmg der Semi'- tcn " (Munziger, op. eit. p. 76). The type of the Bas6 (whoso true name is Kun&ma), as d«-scribed and figured by F. L. James (" Wild Tribes of the Sud&n," London, I883t. 8c4>ms distinctly Negroid. In the Preface, p. 1, of that work, they are stated to be "of a totally different type, much blacker and mors clo!«eI}' allied to the poor Negro than any of their neighbours." Yet Munxiger asserts that the " ■og«n> nnnte Negcrtypus fehlt" (p. 467). The point must be finally decided by a study of their language, of which nothing appears to be known. Of the Baroa there ar« two divisions, those of the Hagr district who call themselves Kere, and those of Mogareb. There is no geneiml national name ; Bmrtt, meaning "slave," being simply an abusive term applied to them by the Abyssinians. X " Die Sprache von Tegel6 hat mit dem Nuba nichts gemein : ein gt-nauerrs Studium der errtem hat mich Russeg*-r's Classification entgeKcn, davon iiberzeugt" (}^Iunxigor, " Ostafrikanische Studien," p. 551). The same writer, a personal observer, assures us (p. 657) that there is absolutely nothing of the conven'ional Negro type about them ; and as their language is atrither Arabic, Uamitio, nor Nuba, their true position remains st U to be determined.
 * The Halenga of the ^lareb river are, however, said to he of undoubted Amharie descent.