114 THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR I. 4. xxiil

As one goes farther away from the mountains, and particularly

in the east, where the population is more crossed with Arab and other

strains, an obvious improvement is noticeable in physique and mental and ethical standards alike. Among the Kungara it is not uncommon

to see an extremely well-built man of massive proportions, dark in

complexion—even to coal-black—but with the coarse negro features

reduced to some kind of regularity.

XXIV Until recent years the Sultan of Darfur used to appear with

the lower half of his face veiled, and it was counted the height of

ofrensiveness for any of his subjects, even his chief men, to look at him straight in the face. One addressed him only with bowed head and eyes abased, half kneeling and half sitting on the ground. The

Sultan of Masalit still appears in public with face veiled to the

eyes^. Here we probably have a tradition of royalty derived from the

Berber element in the western states'^; but, of course, the veiling custom is most familiar to the world in the case of the picturesque

"veiled" {" mtdnththamin") Tuwarek of the northern deserts known in Darfur, where there is a large colony of them close to el

Fasher, as "Kenin"—who are largely Berber.

Similarly, the seven-days' sequestration of a newly chosen king, mentioned by Barth^ as practised by the (Berber) Muniyoma,

closely corresponds to the similar custom related by el Tunisi* of

the Sultans of Darfur.

XXV Now the above disjointed items of information about the

various people with whom the more distinctively Arab stock com- mingled in Darfur obviously form too slender a foundation to sup-

port any conclusions of scientific finality, but they do give certain

indications of a general nature as to the directions from which came

the ethnic influences that have been at work in the country.

Apart from the Arab strain it seems that the two main ethnic

elements in Darfur are the Negro (Bantu ?)and theHamitic. The former

is the most ancient and survives more strongly in the south and in the

range of Gebel Marra. The latter is partly due to the continuous

pressure exerted by the Arabs in north Africa upon the Berber races,

compelling them to move southwards and encroach upon the lands

of the darker races, a process which began at least as early as the

seventh century a.d. and aflPected every state from the Atlantic to

the Nile in a greater or less degree.

* March, 1918, was the date I met him.

* See, e.g. Browne, p. 211, and cp. frontispiece to Denham, Clapperton and Oudney's Travels. P'or the ancient custom of covering the mouth see Barth, 11, 270. It also appears in Abyssinia (see Bent, p. 39).

' II, 271. * Voy. au DarJ. p. 160.