86 THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR i. 4. xvi.

The population is fairly numerous in the central districts and is

socially on about the same plane as that of eastern Darfur. In the

south it is more numerous and less civilized. Cattle and sheep form

the chief wealth of the Masalit, and dtikJm is their staple food

product. Iron is found in plenty throughout the country. On the

whole, however, Dar Masalit is distinctly a poor country, and, but

for the trade-route from Abesha to el Fasher which bisects it, would

be a mere backwater.

Like Dar Tama it has always been a bone of contention as between Wadai and Darfur, but the former power never held any

rights in it and merely made occasional attacks on it as being the

nearest part of Darfur.

Previous to the Egyptian conquest of Darfur Dar Masalit was

a part of the western district and subject to the viceroy {makdum)

of the west. The Erenga and Mun districts in the north were counted a part of the Fur district of Madi, the Masalit living

east of Wadi Bare were under Kerne, and all the rest was a part of

Fi'a and subject to the Shartdi of that district. At this period, whereas the Kimr (also under Madi) and two sections of Erenga had petty Sultans, the Masalit had only firrash {sing, fersh)— who are dignitaries of distinctly lower rank and less importance than

Shardti.

It was only in the Dervish days that a single Masalati amir

united under his rule the Erenga, Mun and Masalit, and not until

the close of the Dervish days that he assumed the title of Sultan and

claimed complete independence. At present the firrash of the

various Erenga and Mun groups, and the Shartdi who is over

the former, are all placed in subjection to a makdum of the Masalit Sultan, and this viceroy is simply a mamluk, an old Dinka slave who has attained to a position of the highest trust. The

various Masalit sections are allotted as appanages to members of

the royal family or state functionaries and administered on feudal

lines. The Sultan is of course supreme over all. To assist the firrash

(in the case of Masali't, Erenga and Mun alike) there is a body of

damdlig^.

In FtJR days, they say in Dar Masalit, each fersh had also a

samhei or chief executive officer and representative, attached to

him, as was also the custom in the case of the Sultan of the Dagu;

but since the chief fersh of the Masalit has become a " Sultan," this

has been dropped.

^ See p. 74.

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