196 INTRODUCTION

autochthonous inhabitants among whom they have settled ; and they

speak Arabic. In fact the colloquial Arabic of the Sudan contains many words and phrases that would be incomprehensible in Egypt

or Syria but which have well-established classical authority: this is

naturally most true of the nomad Arabs and applies less to the

riverain populations. The words of Escayrac de Lauture remain sub-

stantially correct:

Leur langue alteree un peu par le temps, accrue de quelques mots empruntes aux vocabulaires des negres, est cependant encore la langue du Hedjaz plus harmonieuse, plus concise, plus energique, plus grammaticale,

et plus arabe que les jargons paries en iSgypte et dans le Gharb.

It would, however, be difficult to give a detailed history of the Arab race in the Sudan in the form of a single narrative. To deal

with it tribe by tribe is an easier method, and this I will now attempt

briefly to do.

In the second Part mention was made of the largest or most im-

portant of those well-known Arabian tribes which sent branches to

the Sudan, and the plan was adopted of following the fortunes of

each in turn, as a single whole where feasible, or otherwise as a number

of subdivisions which had become practicaHy independent of one

another, down to the point of their entry into the Sudan.

In this chapter, whenever occasion arises, it will be more conveni-

ent to reverse this process, and taking in turn the best-known Sudanese Arab tribes of the present day, to attempt to connect each of them

with its respective parent stock.