94 THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 1. 4. xx.

secessionist Musaba'at, and advanced as far east as the Nile, to Omdurman and Shendi^ After such achievements it was the natural

course to found a capital in a more central position and 'Abd el Rahman el Rashi'd (i 785-1 799) chose el Fasher, which is two days'

journey east of the Marra range in a sandy open country suitable

for cultivation and endowed with a good supply of water. Thus the more civilized members of the race, Kungara for the most part,

left the rough and rocky fastnesses of the hills and the broken country beyond to their ruder and more savage brethren of the other branches

of the Fur.

El Tunisi^ correctly divides the race into Kungara, Karakiri't and Temurka. Roughly speaking, the first named are in the east,

though they are to be found intermarried with other Fur in the west. The Karakirit are properly the people of Gebel Si, and the Te- murka are in the south-west beyond Gebel Marra. But, as a matter

of fact, no exact lines can be drawn between the three groups, and

elements of the first in particular are scattered far afield. Even

though there may be an original substratum which is of distinctively "Fur" origin, there are the traditional grounds quoted for sup-

posing that the various Fertit tribes have become grafted upon this

stem to such an extent that the Fur of the present have quite as

large an element of Fertit in their composition as of true Fur.

It is at once obvious as one travels in Darfur and enquires as to

the inter-relationships and groupings of the Fur that their sub-

divisions, apart, perhaps, from the main groups of Kungara, Kara-

kiri't and Temurka, are local or totemistic in origin rather than

linear^. Their names are taken, not from a common ancestor, but either

from some hill or valley, or some bird or beast or grass*. After a few

general remarks on the Kungara and Temurka it will, therefore, be

best to arrange such information as there is about the composition

of the Fur district by district rather than to try to trace ramifications

of any single family throughout Darfur.

The Kungara include, beside the royal Kayra section, the great Musaba'at group which broke away to the east in the seventeenth

century and conquered Kordofan and remained in power there until

ousted by the Kungara from Darfur in 1784-1785^. The Kungara

^ Both Shendi and Metemma are said to be Fur names.

- Voy. au Darfour, p. 134.

^ When enquiring for a traditional ancestor among Arabs one never draws

blank. The FQr, however, are nonplussed and hazard such guesses as "that fellow Adam, was it not?" or " Sulaymdn Solong."

* Examples are given later. See also note on p. 34.

* See MacMichael, Tribes..., Chaps, i and 11.