84 THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR i. 4. xiii.
tribal organization, speaking Arabic, and divided into two main groups, the 'Ibba and the 'Ikka^.
There remain the western frontier tribes, the slave tribes, and
the Fur themselves.
To take these in turn: XIV KiMR. Dar Kimr lies north of the Masalit country and east
of Dar Tama. To the north and east of it is open country sparsely populated by nomadic Zaghawa of the Kubbe and Kubga sections.
It is a small tract, poor in natural resources, sandy in parts and stony
in others, and its people live by cultivating dukhn and breeding sheep and cattle. The water supply is moderate. Iron is plentiful,
especially at Babiri.
The population claims to be Arab, Ga'alii'n from Metemma by
origin, but, beyond the fact that it is Arabic-speaking (with the
exception only of the Abu Jokha section, who speak Tama) and has no dialect of its own, there is no reason to think the claim has much
to recommend it. The name Kimr, like the name Ermbeli, which is used in place
of it in Wadai, means "dove^," and there are variant traditions that
the Kimr were the original inhabitants of Dars Tama and Masalit^
or, as the Fur say, that they were once Temurka (Fur) who could change themselves into doves.
The Fur call the Kimr "Oranq-a," the Tama and the Dagu
call them "Gimruk" and "Gumerke" respectively. Not being a
warlike people they have suffered much at the hands of the more
rapacious Zaghawa, Masalit and Fur*.
Politically they formed a part of the Darfur Sultanate, save in so
far as they could maintain their independence, and from time immemorial they have had a petty Sultan of their own.
Their main subdivisions are
:
1. MiGGi (the ruling section) 2. Abu J6kha
(a) dhurriat Tahir {a) Effere
{b) ,, Husayn (b) Showa
(c)
(e)
if)
Nakhit (c) Ligam Bulad Musa Harot
^ El Tunisi {Voy. au Darfour, pp. 129, 134, etc.) speaks of those south of Marra
as " Foullan," by which name they are known to the Arabs and Hausa in West Africa. The Kanuri call them Fellata. To ethnologists they are commonly known
as Fulbe or Ful or "Poul": see Barth, Vol. iv, Ch. LVil, p. 143. In the Sudan the term Fellata is loosely used to cover the Hausa also.
" The Arabic is i<j-»5. ' Cp. Nachtigal, ap. Carbou, 11, 215.
* Cp. Carbou, n, 204, 205; Nachtigal, Voy. au Ouadai, p. 73.