CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 107 CHAPTER V.

CHARACTER OP THE PEOPLE.

There exists, perhaps, no country in which the inhabitants are so various, and diametrically opposed to each other in character as in Kordofan ; for, after half a day's journey from one district to the other, the traveller is almost tempted to believe that he has arrived in a different country, subject to quite a different government, and professing a different religion. A shade of variation in the race of the people quite alters their characters. There are, properly speaking, three distinct races of men abruptly differing from each other in the province : namely the negroes, properly so called, or Aborigines ; then the Arabs or free people, to which class the Bakkara belong ; and, lastly, those who have emigrated from Dongola. The negroes who, with the exception of many slaves, profess the faith of Islam, are to be met with distributed over all the five districts, and occupy themselves chiefly with agriculture. Their wants are, therefore, fewer than those of the trading population, who on their travels have become acquainted with many comforts, which have