Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/527

 or northern Tibbus, who may consequently be regarded as the typical representatives of the race. In any case they are the least mixed, the inhabitants of Tibesti being perfectly homogeneous, and entirely free from intermixture with Arab or Berber immigrants, But this remarkable race, one of the most important in North Africa, at least for the extent of its domain, and altogether one of the most characteristic groups in the human family, is numerically one of the most insignificant on the continent. According to Nachtigal, the whole nation can scarcely comprise more than twenty-eight thousand souls, of whom not more than twelve thousand are scattered over the extensive Tibesti uplands.

The Dazas of Borku are even still less numerous than the kindred Tedas of Tibesti, although their territory might support a far larger population. Nachtigal estimates them at five thousand at the utmost, while the nomads of the same region, mostly belonging to the Bulgeda nation, may number, perhaps, from five thousand to seven thousand. Partly agriculturists, partly stockbreeders, the Dazas and Bulgeda differ little from the Tibesti highlanders. Like them they are thin, energetic, and intelligent, usually exempt from disease, but less favoured with physical beauty. In this respect they form, from the ethnological standpoint, the transition between the Tibbus and the true Negroes bordering on Lake Tsad. Their speech also resembles that of the Tibbus, Zoghawas, and other branches of this group. The Duzas score the temples with two vertical incisions scarcely