I. 4. IX. THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 79

Danagla from Nubia and that their language resembles that of the Barabra : so it seems that the Birked too found their way into Darfur from Nubia,

Their connection with Midob, the similarity between the names "Kajjara" ("Kagarugei," "Kajarge," etc., all meaning Birked) and "Kaga" (or "Kajai") and ''Kageddi" (a subtribe of Midob), the

occurrence of old ironworks^ at el Haraza between Kaga and Dongola coupled with the fact that the Birked of Wadai are ironworkers, and

the local tradition at Kaga that the Birked once ruled there and at

Katul^, all suggest that it was by way of northern Kordofan that

the Birked came.

There are also indications as to the period of their arrival. It has been noticed that el Tunisi usually groups the Birked with the TuNGUR and that two of the Birked subtribes call themselves Beni HiLAL by origin. The traditional connection between the Tungur and the Beni Hilal is strong, however difficult it be to define its

details, and the Birked are evidently implicated in this ethnological

imbroglio. Since there is no trace of the Tungur having ever spoken any tongue but Arabic, whereas the Birked still speak a rotdna as

well as Arabic, and since the Birked are socially indistinguishable from the Dagu, who preceded the Tungur in Darfur, and since the Birked have forgotten everything about their Nubian connection and are generally regarded as having lived in south-central Darfur from time immemorial, whereas it is common knowledge that the Tungur immigrated and are not indigenous, it appears Hkely that

the Birked reached Darfur before the Tungur immigration. The Tungur came in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and the Birked may have left Nubia soon after the dismemberment of the Christian kingdom in the fourteenth century, or even earlier. The so-called

Hilali sections of Birked may be no more than Tungur who joined them in Darfur, or may represent Beni Hilal elements who joined

the Birked in the same manner as others joined the Tungur.

There is even extant what I believe to be a seventh century reference to the Birked ("Kajjara") when they were still in Nubia.

^ The name of Kaga applies to the broken chain of hills comprising the Gebels of Katul, Kdga, Kaga Surrug in north-western Kordofan, and the Lughud hills near Gebel el Hilla in Darfur. From it the term Kagawi is formed to denote an inhabitant.

^ See MacMichael, Tribes..., p. 240. Iron is no longer smelted at el Haraza, but was so until a generation ago. ' I lay no stress on the argument derived from the existence of ironworks at el Haraza since such are common in Kordofan and may have been due to races other than the Birked.

^ Curiously enough, in MS. D i, CLXii, it is the Dagu who are grouped with the people of Kaga and Katul.