ARABS LIKE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 17

The camel-drivers, who mostly belong to the Hadendowa

tribe, live on the mainland. Most of them wear long hair

standing up straight on the crown of the head, and of a fine

but woolly texture, while that at the back of the head generally

reaches to the shoulders, and is sometimes worn in plaits : when properly dressed, the whole is covered with fat, and a

wooden skewer, by way of comb, stuck in it. We saw one or

two men with their heads covered with fat that had been mixed

with grated sandalwood, and presented a red-ochre appearance :

these, we were informed, were about to enter the marriage-

state.

The hair is, with all Arabs, a source of pride ; and the men

of various tribes may frequently be distinguished by little dif-

ferences in their mode of dressing it. No traveller in these parts can fail to be struck by the great

similarity in physique, and general appearance, of many of the

wandering tribes of Arabs, to the ancient Egyptians as depicted

on the walls of their temples and tombs. The mode of wearing

the hair is identical ; the curious little w^ooden pillows they

use for their heads when sleeping are exactly of the same form

and make as those which may be seen in museums containing

ancient Egyptian curiosities ; as, too, are also the chairs that

they use. A very intelligent Greek, whom we afterwards met

in Cassala, and who had given some attention to the study of

the language spoken by the Hadendowa Arabs in the neigh-

bouring country, and had, moreover, some knowledge of hiero-

glyphics, told us that there was often a striking similarity in many of their words.

My brother Arthur in 1877 made the journey from Souakim

to Cassala ; meeting the rest of the party, who had taken the

Nile route, in the interior. He had with him a Hadendowa

Arab, who had originally started as guide to the caravan from