ORIGIN OF TIIIBES OK llACES. 247 lM?hold a Turk, paid, in an indirect manner, his tulba (tribute) tlirougli him. There is, in trutli, a district of Ai-abia called Kalb, pronounced Kelb by tlie Turks, from wlience it is possible tliis tribe may have tlicir name.

Hallenga, Haddenda, Mitkenab, Bischari, Ilomrahn, Beni-Gcrahr, Beni-Amer, and even a part of Schukune, have a language of their own (Rottan). Why not also Ai-abic, like most of the Arab tribes ? who liave emigrated the more so, as now on the Gesira Arabic has even driven out tlic original language. Were all these tlie original tribes, or rather the solo people of these lands, as they have only one language, or were they a powerful people, only gradually intermixed with Ai'abians? or have they united with them, the latter being the fewer, having adoi)ted the language, Avhile the former received the new religion ? or has only a part of the well-known immense emigrations of tho Ai-ab race remained here, while the rest moved further south (to Kordofan, Darfur, Borzu, Bornu, &c.), and thus among larger masses lost its original language, while it retained its religion ? On the hills men speak anotlier language, which the above-mentioned races do not understand, and these hill tribes must be an original race, although among the tribes each has a difterent language of its own, pei-haps the poor remains of their nationality. But over the great tract of country of the above-mentioned tribes, some one language, some one great nation must have once spread, as among all these ditlerent races there is a perfect similarity of customs and usages, as of one nation. The original nation must also have been migratory and uncivilised, as in the whole extent of country, from the deserts behind Syene from the Atbara to the K{>d Sea, not the smallest trace of a former cultivation, or settled dwelling seat, has been seen by any traveller, although men talk of pyramids and such-like, as I afterwards heai-d. Perhaps all these lands were once subject to the Abyssinian emperor, who among his titles styled himself King of " Kas," which may be identical with "Gash," and have not only meant the Gohr itself but also all the lands situated on it. The woi-d, too, " Makada," used for Ilabesch or Ittopia, also points to an olden connection with the empire of Abyssinia, as according to the Kebra za Negest, the queen v/ho visited Solomon was called