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CAIRO TO KISUMU Abyssinia and from the regions along the Red Sea. Quite a number were the sons of the richer chiefs of Kordofan and Darfur, and not a few came from Dongola and Berber. Some of the boys were dressed in the fezzes and gowns of Egypt, others wore the white turbans and long robes of the people of Central Africa. Among them were Coptic and Mohammedan Egyptians, some few Bedouins, and here and there a Negro.
Many of the students have features like ours. Their noses are straight, their lips are thin, and their hair is not kinky, although they are black. Such boys are not Negroes, but the descendants of people from Arabia. Their ancestors had reached a high degree of civiliza¬ tion during the Middle Ages when the Arabic schools and universities were noted over the world.
The college is divided into three departments. The first, which is for the sons of sheiks, is devoted to the training of teachers for the Mohammedan schools and of judges and other officials for the Mohammedan courts. Following their usual colonial policy, the British are gov¬ erning the Sudan as far as possible through the natives. They respect the native religions and the native language, therefore the instruction in this part of the college is altogether in Arabic. The students write all their exer¬ cises in Arabic and take their dictation in that tongue. Along with other subjects the students are taught the Koran and the Koranic law—and they are well grounded in the Mohammedan religion, especially as it bears upon the government of the people. The students of this de¬ partment are fine-looking fellows, dressed almost uni¬ formly in turbans and gowns, and have the aristocratic bearing which shows them to be the sons of chiefs.
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