IV. D 7.x. NATIVE MANUSCRIPTS OF THE SUDAN 407

Sudan will be found in Letronne (Materiatix...), and reference should be made to Part I, Chap. 3 and Part II, Chap. 2 above for further information re Soba and 'Aloa.

''A hostel occupied by the Miihammadans'' is in the Arabic Sj^.^*-* J»^j ^^ii,X„>^^\J . See note to D 7, para. 11, and see explanatory note in Vol. i,

p. 171 re Ibn Selfm's use of the same word.

The spelling '' Sobd" for "Soba" is unusual and incorrect. The mizr spoken of is the older form of the modern merissa (native

beer). El Tunisi {Voy. au Ddrfour, p. 224) speaks of "le mizr, le oum- bulbul, sorte de vin rouge." He explains it in a note (p. 426) as "une boisson fermentee et enivrante, tout a fait analogue au bouza qu'on pre'pare en Egypte." ''Bouza'' and "booze" are no doubt the same word and so both appear to be of the same derivation as the word ''merissa."

" Kassdbi" is the fine white variety of millet which is still grown in large quantities in the Gezira.

II This paragraph closely resembles D 3, v and D 3, 157 (g.v.).

The word translated " hosfel" is again Lbj. In D 3 the word used

is jmas. In Muhammad 'Abd el Magid's MS., in place of J»bj *J ^^ we have lisbj ^ ^.

"EI Is" is definitely written ^/-Jl in at least one copy. See D 3, 153 (note). III By the Awlad Dayfulla are probably meant the Dayfullab, i.e. the family of the author of D 3 .

For Idris el Arbab see D 3, 141 and note thereto. Muhammad Abd el Magid's MS. gives 912 for 913. V Cp. Jackson, Tooth of Fire..., p. 17. VII Cp. Jackson, p. 22.

"Because he was the more powerful" is j.**5jl yb ou^^ .

VIII There is no warrant for deriving " Senndr" (jl_Uw) from " si)i" (O-***' ^ tooth) and "ndr" (jU, fire). Schofl^ {Periplus . . . , p. 61) identifies Sennar with the ancient Cyeneum. The author of the Periplus says that

it is three days' journey inland from Adulis to Coloe (modern Kohaito), and from Coloe to the city of the Auxumites {i.e. Axum) "there is five days' journey more; to that place all the ivory is brought from the country beyond the Nile through the district called Cyeneum and thence to Adulis." Cyeneum may correspond geographically with Sennar but it certainly does not philologically as the former is spelt Kw/revo;.

910 a.h. is the generally accepted date of the foundation of the Fung kingdom: cp. Bruce. The original MS. may, however, have given 915 {w") in mistake for 910 {w ), or the last of the three figures may have been indeterminate, for one other MS. I have seen gives 915, and another

gives 910, and in the MS. here translated there is a marginal note to "910 " implying that the text read "915 " and that the copyist made the emenda-

tion: the note is ^»<> ojsJ \^ ^il^-oJt. X Gerayf Kumr, or Gerayf East, is on the east bank of the Blue Nile a

few miles outside Khartoum. Jackson (p. 19) wrongly translate "Gereif

Gimri."