I. 4. XXIII. THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 113 and cube, which are often seen for sale in the Omdurman bazaars, are essentially a Darfur manufacture.

For measuring grain, or carrying it in smaller quantities, the Fur make an uncoloured rayka of basket-work. This is in shape a wide circular bowl about a foot high and one and a half in diameter at the top. The latitudinal bands are formed of strips of bark of laot {Acacia nubica), etc., an inch broad and immediately contiguous. Horizontally intersecting these, in and out, are strips of cane, immediately contiguous. The intersection is the simplest possible. The rim is formed of a larger strip of cane, and the base of two concentric rings of stout cane. The interior is plastered with cow-dung to prevent leakage.

The Fur usually carry a quiver full of barbed throwing-spears and a knife, but their most distinctive weapon is the safarog (pi.

safdng), or throwing-stick, shaped as (a) or (b), or, even less commonly, as (c), and cut from the roots of the inderdb or kitr bush. Practically every Fur carries one of these, and they are very expert in their use. They chiefly employ them for killing hares and " guinea-fowl, but, when occasion arises, for injuring the legs of the horses ridden by their foes.

The Nilotic negro does not use the throwing-stick, but the negroes who invaded Nubia and Upper Egypt under the eighteenth dynasty did, and so also did the Bega.

XXIII In person the Fur of Marra, Si and the west are small and skinny with thin legs, small bones and egg-shaped heads. All have a peculiarly rancid smelP. The young men wear bracelets of brass and hang a few beads and cowries in their hair—more especially the Tebella—but on reaching years of discretion they give up these vanities.

Their character is marked by stupidity and low cunning in combination. They are suspicious and deceitful and they instinctively lie about even the most trivial subject rather than speak a word of the truth. They are very ignorant and credulous of the wildest rumours, hot-tempered, idle and drunken; but they are easily amused and have a distinct sense of the ludicrous. Their one ambition in life is to acquire more cattle.

"In numerous xvni dynasty paintings Negroes are represented with bows and arrows and throwing sticks (boomerangs)." Seligman, Address to the Anthrop. Section... Manchester, B. A. Rep. 1915, pp. 10, 12.

This was noticed also by Dr Felkin (see Bibliography).