OEIGIN OF TRIBES OR RACES. 247 behold a Turk, paid, in an indirect manner, his tulba (tribute) through him. There is, in truth, a district of Ai'abia called Kalb, pronounced Kelb by the Turks, from whence it is possible this tribe may have their name.

Hallenga, Haddenda, Mitkenab, Bischari, Homrahn, Beni-Gerahr, Beni-Amer, and even a part of Schukune, have a language of their own (Rottan). Why not also Arabic, like most of the Arab tribes? who have emigrated the more so, as now on the Gesira Arabic has even driven out the original language. Were all these the original tribes, or rather the sole people of these laud, as they have only one language, or were they a powerful people, only gradually intermixed with Arabians? or have they united with them, the latter being the fewer, having adopted the language, while the former received the new religion ? or has only a part of the well-known immense emigrations of the Arab race remained here, while the rest moved further south (to Kordofan, Darfur, Boi'zu, Bornu, &c.), and thus among larger masses lost its original language, while it retained its religion ? On the hills men speak another language, which the above-mentioned races do not understand, and these hill tribes must be an original race, although among the tribes each has a difterent language of its own, perhaps the poor remains of their nationality. But over the great tract of country of the above-mentioned tribes, some one language, some one great nation must have once spread, as among all these different races there is a perfect similarity of customs and usages, as of one nation. The original nation must also have been migratory and uncivilised, as in the whole extent of country, from the deserts behind 8yeno from the Atbara to the Red Sea, not the smallest trace of a former cultivation, or settled dneUing seat, has been seen by any traveller, although men talk of pyramids and such-like, as 1 afterwards heard. Perhaps all these lands were once subject to the Abyssinian emperor, who among his titles styled himself King of " Kas," which may be identical with "Gasli," and have not only meant the Golir itself but also all the lands situated on it. The word, too, " Makada," used for llabesch or Ittopia, also j)oints to an olden connection with the em})ire of Abyssinia, as according to the Kebra za Ne£»est, the queen who visited Solomon was called