Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/176

 before the marauding Trarzas, and the whole territory to the gates of Saint-Louis gradually fell into the hands of the Moors. Even down to recent times the marauding Trarzas, crossing the river at low water, raided over the plains stretching southwards to the Dimar and Cayor districts. But in 1858 they were finally driven back, and now occupy a tract of about 60 miles on the north side of the river. Higher up follow the Bracknas, and beyond them the Dwaïsh (Ida-u-Aïsh), both holding a territory 120 miles in extent.

North of these three riverain groups are many other Arab and Berber tribes less known to the French, such as the Ulad-el-Haj, and further east the Ulad-Embarek and the Sidi-Mahmud, reckoned the most skilful of ostrich-hunters,

capturing the birds by means of leaden balls attached to thongs without injuring the plumage or shedding a drop of blood.

Besides the Moors, both sides of the river are occupied by a few half-caste communities intermediate between the Berbers and Negroes, and generally known collectively as Porognes. This term, however, which corresponds somewhat to that of Haratin farther north, is in some places applied to the full-blood Negroes in captivity amongst the Moors. But great confusion prevails everywhere in the ethnical nomenclature, so that at times a certain vagueness attaches even to the names of the great Senegalese and Sudanese groups, such as the Fulahs, Wolofs, Sarakolés, and Mandingoes. Of all these nations the Wolofs and Sarakolés appear to be, if not the true aborigines, at least the longest settled in the country.

The Wolofs, who are typical Senegalese, occupy a very extensive domain, comprising nearly the whole of the space lying between the Senegal, the Falémé,