100 THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR i. 4. xx.

KuNYANGA. These belong properly to the great northern district of

the Tekenyawi, now inhabited by ZaghAwa, Tungur, Arabs, etc.,

but they have also colonies farther south, especially round Beringil and Dara. Their claim to be Kungara is probably a good one since

the head of their group held the hereditary rank of " Melik el Nahds"

(" King of the War Drums ").

XXI Something may now be said of the habits and customs of the Fur.

In the first place, they are all now nominally Muhammadans, but

so they were in el Tunisi's day, a century ago^. Previous to their

conversion "by Sulayman Solong" they are popularly supposed to have worshipped "stones or trees," and there is, so far as I have

seen, always either a stone or a tree intimately associated with the

malignant local genii whom it is still considered advisable to placate.

Certain spots are "sacred " to these genii, and are known as " mahaldt

'azvdid" ("places of customs, or rites") in Arabic, or '' ddingallo" in

Fur. For instance, when I was touring in western Darfur (Kerne

district) in 1916, accompanied by the Niamaton, it twice happened

that our road passed by one of these spots and nothing would induce

the Niamaton, in spite of his "Arab ancestry" and his contempt for

his Fur subjects, to remain with me. He insisted in each case in making a detour of some miles to avoid the "holy" spot. The other Fur who were with me were unaffected because the observance of

the custom applied only to the headman of the district and to no one else. Had the Niamaton been able to sacrifice a sheep on the

spot all would have been well and he might have passed it in safety, and he would normally have sent word on ahead to the nearest

village to meet him there with the animal for slaughter; but the

exigencies of travel had rendered this impossible and it therefore

only remained for him to avoid the place. He firmly believed that

the alternative was sudden death for himself within a few months.

The explanation he and his friends gave as follows. At one site,

called Sergitti-, is a stone under which lives a devil (shaitdn or

gin). The headman of Kerne district must never pass by this

stone without offering a sacrifice to the devil, but the prohibition

applies to no one else whether he be the Sultan of Darfur or a village

sheikh. The site marks no boundary and it makes no difference

^ Voy. au Darfour, p. 145.

* In Gebel Kongyo, a mile west of Gulli, at the foot of a steep incline, in the bend of a small khor, where the track crosses it and where the villagers draw

their water (at the depth of a few feet) throughout the year. The "stone" referred

to was an ordinary boulder undistinguished in any way from any other boulder near it. Cp. p. 122 for another similar case.