$6 Beni Shangul.

To the east and south-east of the Dar el Fungi, the country is raided by the Inkasana, a robber people, from the direction of Beni Shangul and the hills of Dar Bertat.

(c) Beni Shangul.

Description. From Famaka on the Blue Nile, the Dar Bertat, or Dar Fazokl, district stretches due south for 150 miles. It is a mountainous country, well supplied with streams, chief of which are the Tomat and Yabus, full of game, and with beautiful scenery. Its chief attraction, however, lies in the fact that it is rich in gold, which metal is chiefly to be found in the Beni Shangul hills.

The Beni Shangul occupy the mountainous zone formed by the westernmost edge of the Abyssinian tableland, and limited on the east and the north by the Blue Nile, on the south by the River Yabus, an affluent on the left bank of the Blue Nile, and by the country occupied by the Komas. The country of the Beni Shangul is intersected by the 35th meridian, and is very auriferous. They trade in gold with Abyssinia and the Sudan, and their money is formed principally of pieces of that metal.

The Beni Shangul are a people of mixed Arab and Sudanese blood, nearly connected with the Dervishes in the language which they speak, which is Arabic, and by religion, habits, customs, and government. They are not nomads and but little agricultural, but possess large quantities of cattle. Their villages are constructed, for reasons of defence, on isolated peaks. Hitherto they were independent of both Abyss inians and Dervishes, but they paid to the latter a tribute in gold ; to the former they were always hostile.

The leaders of the Beni Shangul are two Emir3. One resides at Agoldi and is called Kogeli, the other resides at Beni Shangul, and is called Ali Abdul Rahman, and also Tor (or Wad Tur) el Gruri. Each of them disposes of, it is said, 10,000 rifles, obtained from the Dervishes or bought from the Abyssinians at Tille.

Besides the two towns mentioned where the Emirs reside, there is the centre one of Gomosha.

The village of Beni Shangul lies on the south-east