IV. D 7. LI. OF THE SUDAN

411

onusti ad Imperatorem redeunt." [Extracts from the Portuguese of Paez will be found in Appendix 2. See also Bruce, Vol. iii, pp. 311-319.]

After the expedition just described, to quote Bruce {loc. cit), " Still the vengeance of Socinios was not satisfied. The Baharnagash, Guebra

Mariam," was commanded to march "against Fatima, queen of the Shep-

herds^, called at that time Negusta Errum'-, queen of the Greeks. This was a princess who governed the remnant of that antient race of people, once the sovereigns of the whole country, who, for several dynasties, were masters of Egypt, and who still, among their ancient customs, preserved that known one, of always placing a woman upon the throne. Her residence was at Mendera, on the north-east of Atbara, one of the largest and most

popular towns in it." Mendera, that is Mundera, was on the great east- to-west trade and pilgrim route, and its queen, the modern representative of Candace, derived her income from the fact. She surrendered to Guebra Mariam and was taken to Abyssinia but was released and sent back home with presents.

The Abyssinians no doubt considered Sennar, or at least that portion of the kingdom which was bounded by Abyssinia, as theoretically a subject state. For instance, Ludolfus, basing his history chiefly on the works of Tellez and the Jesuit memoirs, says in Bk. i, Chap, xvi (published 1681 and translated by Gent in 1684) that to the south Abyssinia is bounded

by "the Kingdom of Sennar or Fund, governed by its peculiar king, formerly a tributary to the Abessines, but now absolute"; and in Bk. 11, Chap, xviii, we find "as for the king of Sennar, he has often revolted and made warr upon the Abessines." Menelik II was of the same opinion so late as 1891 : see note to D i, CLXXXIII.

Between the reigns of el Rubat (died 1642) and Badi "Abu Shelukh" {ace. 1723) there seems to have been a period of comparative peace.

The el Amin walad Mismar mentioned here is not to be confused with

the Muhammad el Amin walad Mismar of paras. Lxxvii et seq. : see Na'um Bey, Hist. Sudan, 11, 99.

LI Khamis is mentioned by Bruce (Vol. 11, p. 635): "Hamis, prince of Dar Fowr had been banished from his country in a late revolution occa-

sioned by an unsuccessful war against Sele and Bagirma, and had fled to Sennaar, where he had been kindly received by Baady, and it was by his

assistance the Funge had subdued Kordofan." Muhammad Abu el Kaylak was probably the greatest man that the Sudan produced in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His sons and grandsons were virtually supreme in the Gezira after his death until the Turkish conquest, and he himself not only conquered and administered

Kordofan but also raised himself to the position of a dictator at Sennar.

I do not think that there can be much doubt but that he was one of the

Hamag by race, though Jackson (p. 51) says (rashly, I think) that the "general consensus of native opinion" is in favour of his being a Ga'ali, and quotes

an account of him given by the Mek of the Gamu'ia from which it would

appear that Abu el Kaylak's mother was Hamag and his father a Gamu'i

1 The Bega tribes, that is. - I.e. el Rilm.