1. 4. XX. THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 97

speaking, as far north as the wadi 'Azum, which rises in Gebel Marra and flows west to Gebel Murni on the Masalit border and thence south-westwards until it becomes the Bahr el Salamat.

North of the A^Jum lies Dar Kerne ^, subject to a Fur functionary

called the Niamaton. To the north and north-west again of Dar Kerne

are the districts of Fi'a^ and Madi^. According to the Niamaton himself

all his subjects with few exceptions are Runga and other kinds of Fertit settled in their present positions by past Sultans of Darfur as

serfs. He even speaks of his chief Shartais as Fertit. Needless to say, he claims Arab blood for himself, though calling himself a Fur and

being a slave to all the local superstitions and customs. Of tribal

divisions he has practically no conception and distinguishes group from group on purely local lines. The Temurka of Dar Abo Dima he regards as half FCr and half Fertit, the Shartais chiefly the former and the common villagers the latter. The particular type of Fertit commonest in Dar Abo Di'ma, according to the Niamaton, are the FoROKE, the people, that is, whom the Dagu say they found west

of Dara on their first arrival and ejected. The Tebella, he says, are

properly Binga, and as it is certainly true that the Tebella are

popularly regarded as diflFering in some way from the rest of the Dumungowi's subjects, this explanation may have some truth in it.

In fact, if the Niamaton is in any way to be trusted all Gebel Marra and western Darfur was at one time the home of Fertit tribes, and

they were only partially dispossessed by the Dagu, Tungur and

Arabs*. How they came to be called Fur and why they speak one

single language, which is not that of any of the Fertit tribes I have

met, both in Marra and the east and the west, the north and the

south, he fails to explain, and one hardly sees any explanation but

that the Fur were a distinct race at some early period however much

they may have subsequently amalgamated with the Fertit^.

Fia district, under the old Sultans, included what is now the

northern part of Dar Masalit, and Dar Erenga which, though generally

^ Kem6 in Fur means [the] trousers [of the Sultan].

- Fi'a means a hare.

^ Madi means one who walks in front [of the Sultan's horse].

* Speaking of the Fur outside Dar Abo Dima and Kerne the Niamaton affirmed

the people of Nurgnla (western slopes of Marra) were Banda, those under Shartai

'AH (eastern slopes of Marra) were Binga, those of the Umungowi (east of Marra and in it) were Makraka (a tribe closely affiliated to the Azande) from Bahr el Gebel, and even the Karakirft of Gebel Si were " Fertft" also.

^ Lepsius (Discoveries..., p. 260) says the Kungara language is quite different from Nubian {i.e. Barabra) and seems to have strong affinities with some South

African languages. The Fur, whether Kungara or not, all speak the same language

at present. A table comparing it with the Fertft dialects is added in Appendix 3

to this chapter.