330 THE NATIVE MANUSCRIPTS IV.D4. iv.

p. 185), it at once seems probable that, when Any fled away to the " 'Anag country" across a desert waste, it was at el Haraza, as would be natural, that he sought refuge. Traditions of the 'Anag as being the ancient inhabi- tants of el Haraza are universal and there is no doubt whatever that from

an early period there was intercourse between the riverain "Nubians" and the settlers in the western hills. I incline to think that this intercourse is far older than has been supposed, and there is no reason why it should not date back at least to the seventh century B.C. It is of course more probable that emigrants from the river should have colonized el Haraza, Um Durrag, etc., than that the opposite process should have occurred, but it is often overlooked that there was in early times an enormous nomad population of Hamitic affinities, who roamed the inland country west of Dongola and the junction of the Niles, the "desert of Gorham" and the neighbourhood of el Haraza that is, and who were partly of Berber origin, and whom Marmol (vol. iii, ed. Perrot), in speaking of their wars with "the prince of Dongola," calls "ceux de Gorhan, qui est une espece d'Egyptiens qui courent par les deserts." The modern Nubian or Berberi may owe nearly as much from the genealogical point of view to these nomads as to their riverain congeners. (See vol. I, pp. 27 et seq.)

"King Tahrak" is of course Taharka, "who flourished in the second quarter of the seventh century before Christ and was the second Sudani

conqueror of Egypt" (see Budge, vol i, p. 482. Breasted gives his date as about 688-663 B.C.).

By "Sebakh" may be meant Shabataka, the Ethiopian monarch who succeeded Shabaka about 700 B.C. Manetho calls him Sebichos and men-

tions that he was killed by Taharka, who succeeded him (see Breasted,

Hist. pp. 377-8).

The Assyrian invasion by Esarhaddon was about 670 B.C. v The Nubians first had dealings with Romans about 30 B.C. when a prefecture was established in Egypt. From then for a period of 500 years the Blemyes and Nobatae {i.e. the Nubians) were more or less continu-

ally in touch with them.

VI 'Amr's conquest of Egypt was in 641 a.d.

Dabat el Dolib, mentioned again in para, xxi, is immediately south of

"Debba" {i.e. Daba), on the eighteenth degree of latitude.

VII This is in agreement with the usual Sudanese tradition: the main

♦ immigration to the Sudan of Abbasid tribes, as represented by the Ga'ali group, and of Ommayyad tribes, as represented by the Fung, is generally represented as contemporaneous with the civil war in the middle of the eighth century between the Abbasids and the Ommayyads in Asia.

IX The date January 22nd, 15 17, is quite correct. Toman Bai was put to death by Sellm I (see Lane-Poole, History..., p. 354; and Muir, Mame-

luke Dynasty..., Chaps, xx, xxi). "Gerakisa" is the same as Circassian. XI For Hamam and the period of Howara rule in Upper Egypt and Nubia see Burckhardt's Nubia, and Part HI, Chap. 8 above.

The Howara had held considerable power since 1412 A.D., when they