344 THE NATIVE MANUSCRIPTS iv.d6.iii.

cannot encompass it, for men are of different classes: some are

modest. . . " (several lines, showing the difficulties to be encountered owing to men's different characters and motives, follow).

IV I must now return to my subject, namely the mention of the Arab tribes that are occupying the land of the Sudan — in our day that is; and God knows best what the future may be.

V The first of them to be mentioned is the family of the noble Sherif el Sayyid Mahmud son of Muhammad son of Sulayman son

of Ga'afir son of 'Abdulla, and his pedigree goes back to Muhammad ibn el Hanafia.

They include numerous tribes, almost innumerable, known as the Fadnia, or, as they were originally called after the manner of

Arabic, "the Fawadani." These include the family of Hasan ibn Ba Fadni ibn Muhammad, among whose descendants was a man called Barakat ibn Kasim ibn Mahmud ibn Musa ibn Husayn ibn Katada ibn Hasan ibn Ba Fad (sic). This man was a powerful personage and

married the daughter of 'Anka ibn 'Atif, who bore to him a son and a daughter; and [the former] was named Ibn Gebel ibn Barakat ibn

Kasim. And when he saw the condition of 'Anka's family and knew their ways he feared lest his son should become like them, so he

worried him saying "Join your people" and "You will see me on your tracks." So he joined his people at Wahayn, which lies north of the city of el Abwab, which is a great city said to contain stone images of such beasts as lions and wolves and snakes ; and it has seen much of the ravages of war and the blessings of peace in the days of Islam and the days of ignorance.

VI [The Fadnia] also include the family of Mas'ud ibn Ba Fad (sic), who has descendants still tracing to him their parentage.

VII They include also the family of Salimayn ibn Ba Fad whose descendants are well known on account of their condition and their good characters to this day.

VIII They include also the family of Mas'ud ibn Ba Fad, and of Sa'i'd ibn Ba Fad, whose stock has died out.

IX Chapter giving an account of the Arabs known as Ga'al, they being still the ruling power of that country. Their pedigree is to

Sa'ad el Ansari, but I am not sure of their ramifications — only that

it is to Sa'ad that the great majority of the pedigrees are traced. X The reason of their migration to the Sudan was their quarrel with the Ommavvia at the time of the quarrel between the Beni

Ommayya and the Beni Hashim. So they migrated to the west, and then returned to Dongola and conquered its people, and advanced by degrees till they overcame Guhayna.