122 Dar Fun;/ and Bnrun.

IVxiiiilaries.

J. Tabi and Ingassaaa.

Mris Wad Itegab.

Trade.

Cultivation.

Raids.

Watr supply.

(b) Dnr Fung (South of North Lat. Vl°).

Dar Fung is now, compared to its palmy days, an unimportant district. Its boundaries are : on the north, Jebels Gereiwa and Rera; on the east, Jebel Agadi and the Fazogli district. Southwards, it extends to the Abyssinian fiontier, and. including the district of Keili and the northern Burun country, extends westwards towards the Dinkas of the White Nile.

In the days when the Fung were at their best, it included Dul and Assosa etc., which now belong to Abyssinia. Jebel Tabi and district is included in Dar Fung, The Ingassana, now under Mek Agoda, who inhabit it, remained independent and refused to pay tribute to Idris Wad Regab or the Government until February, 1903, when the Mudir visited this district and established the headquarters of the Dar Fung District at Soda instead of Gule, without opposition. The Ingassana are seldom met without their peculiar sickle-shaped swords. They also possess curious boomerang-like throwing-sticks. They keep apparently a good deal to themselves, as complaints against them are rare. They expressed delight at coming under the asgis of the Government, and at the assurance of their future immunity from slave raids. The district of Tabi is hilly and well watered, and appears to be much more healthy than the surrounding plains. It is said to much resemble Erkowit in the Suakin district. Pigs are not uncommon in this district, and the menu of the chiefs is a varied one, dogs, horses, camels, leopards etc., are all eaten, especially the former, with great relish. The skulls of all animals consumed are arranged in order round the enclosures of the houses.

Idris Wad Regab, a direct descendant of the old Fung dynasty, is now Mek or head Sheikh of Dar Fung. He is a loyal man, and is now very badly off, having suffered greatly at the hands of the Dervishes, by whom he was not recognised. Sheikh Abd El Kader is his Wakil. Adlan Wad Surur was Mek during the Mahdia; he now lives near Karkoj.

Gule used to be the chief town of Dar Fung, it is now only second in importance to Keili. It consists of three small villages situated at the foot of Jebel Idris or Gule, a granite mass about 1,000 feet high, and contains but a few hundred inhabitants, mostly Hameg, or a mixture of Hameg and the aboriginal Fung. There are generally some encampments of Dar Ageil or Selim Arabs in the vicinity.

There is a little trade with Abyssinia, but practically nothing in the shape of supplies, animals etc., are procurable here. Most of the merchants trading with Abyssinia pass through Keili.

There is the usual dura and simsim cultivation, but little more is grown than is required for the wants of the inhabitants.

As, prior to the demarcation of the Abyssinian frontier, the Burun were so decimated by raiding parties from Abyssinian territory, Idris Wad Regab was, in March, 1902, given rifles by the Government to protect his people. In addition to these he had a good many of his own, with which he inflicted some loss on Ahmed Fedil's force when it marched from Dakhila to the White Nile after the battle of Roseires, December, 1898. These raids have ceased for the present owing to the capture of the principal raider, Ibrahim Wad Mahmud, in February, 1904. Vide Chap. VII, Part II, page 278.

Water, which is obtained from several holes at the foot of the Jebel, is fairly plentiful but bad. It is said to be impregnated with lime.

Boundari<>«), etc.

Bunin neat K. Yabug.

Burun.

The Burun inhabit the country between the Dinkas of the White Nile and the Abyssinian frontier from about 11° 30' north latitude southwards to the Dinkas and Nuers of the Sobat and Baro. Those among the hills north of K. Yabus are under Mek Idris Wad Regab, of Gule, and appear to have acknowledged the suzerainty of his predecessors for probably a century before the advent of the Turks. On the K. Yabus and south of it nothing can be definitely stated as to their organisation, but they appear to be divided into a number of independent communities.

The Burun are said to be related to the Berta, but they are lighter in colour than the Berta generally are and speak a different language.

Major Gwynn gives the following description of the Burun near Khor Yabus: The men, who are physically very finely built, are stark naked, and smear their heads with wet and clammy red mud.* They all carry long bows, wooden pointed featherless arrows, and in addition, generally a spear. Arrows are poisoned by being stuck into a certain species of tree,f and are pointed with notched charred wood or ebony. They have a range of 150 yards.

* Their ai)peanince is said to he rendered still more grotesque by the wearing of a cow-hide belt about .3 inches wide to which is affixed, at tlie back, the tail of some animal ; this gives the wearer the strange appearance of possessing a tail, t Euphorbia caiiddabrum.