1. 4. XIX. THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 89 The main subdivisions of the Erenga are the following : ShAL MARARfx OWRA DaROMI ASUNG'UR DULA GiRGA NyUDUNG'UR The OwRA and Mararit have "Sultans" of their own: the rest only firrash.

XVIII HadAhid. Scattered here and there in Darfur, but particularly in the neighbourhood of the Tama and Masalit border are small colonies of Hadahid (or "Hadadin"), that is, "Blacksmiths." These have been in the country for many generations and have come to be looked on, in some cases,—rightly or wrongly—as Fur; but most of them certainly originate from Wadai or west of it and, when asked, say so. As is usual in north-central Africa from east to west they are held in general contempt and the rest of the population do not intermarry with them. This feeling of aversion towards the workers in iron is strongest among the Zaghawa, who so far from intermarrying with them would not eat or associate with them. They are a hereditary caste and are called Miro {sing, mir) by the Fur. From casual remarks of contempt that I have heard used in speaking of them I should say that it was not so much to their dealing with iro7i that they owe their inherited unpopularity as to their employment oi fire for the purpose.

XIX "Slave" Tribes. The "slave" tribes of Darfur may be divided into two groups; firstly, colonies of negroes from outside Darfur imported by successive Sultans en bloc and settled on the land during the last century or two, but particularly by the Sultan See p. 83. There are also Mararit among the Masah't proper.

* Nachtigal (Voy. au Ouada'i, pp. 80-81) records the contempt with which the blacksmith is held in Bomu, Wadai and Darfur "and in general among all the Tibu tibes" and that in Wadai no one would think of marrying one of their women or eat from the same plate as a blacksmith. The "Sultan of the Hadadin" is there a kind of carnival king. Thus, too, in Darfur 'Ali Dinar contemptuously appointed as "Sultan of the Hadadin" a rival to the Sultanate whom he overthrew as a preliminary to his own succession.

Compare Carbou, i, p. 49 et seq. and 209: " Hadddd chez les Arabes, dogod chez les Kanembou, azd chez les Toubou, noegue chez les Boulala, Kabartou chez les Ouadaiens, les forgerons sont toujours profondment meprises " In Kanem the majority of the workers-in-iron are of Tibbu-Kura'an origin.

So, too, in the east: cp. Bent, p. 212. "The Blacksmith in Abyssinia is looked upon with mingled dread and superstition... he is supposed to have the power of turning himself into a hyaena and committing ravages on his enemies."

Compare the following from "The Pre-Bantu Occupants of East Africa" (Beech), in Man, March, 1915: The ancient population of the Kikuyu country in East Africa are reputed to have been cannibal dwarfs called Maithoachiana. These latter, according to the District Commissioner of Fort Hall, " appear to be a variety of earth-gnomes with many of the usual attributes Like earth-gnomes in most folklore, they are skilled in the art of iron-working.... It is a Kikuyu insult to say 'You are the son of a Maithoachiana.'"