2o8 THE GA'ALifN AND DANAGLA GROUP iii. i. xvii.
to be Ga'aliin by origin, a claim which is commonly denied them
with a laugh and a sneer by the Shukria, Mesallami'a and other
tribes who live nearest to them and consequently have cause to throw
the broadest aspersions upon their ancestry. As a matter of fact it would seem from the "nisbas'' that they are one of the oldest off-
shoots of that early group of Arab immigrants to whose descendants
the name Ga'aliin is applied. They are certainly less noticeably con-
taminated with negro blood than any other Ga'aliin, and in all
probability represent more closely the original stock.
Their own traditions relate in effect that their name is derived from that of the Batah (Lowlander-KuRAYSH) who inhabited the neighbourhood of Mekka in the Prophet's day^, but a variant put forward by the cynical is that their ancestor was found abandoned ("mabtuh") in some ''wddr ("bat-ha").
XVIII The subdivisions of the Batahin are as follows:
A. 'Ashama^ fi. Sahbab j'
2. HidaybAb
11
3
.
'Arkashab^
'
4. 'AlAmAb
5. DifaylAb
6. 'AsAfAb^
I
a) NinAb
b) BelalAb
c) Others
a) SherahAb
b) 'Atawia
c) GudumAb
d) SowAdi'b
a) BelalAb
b) Um 'fsA
a) BuRUK
b) ShulukhAb^
a) KodelAb
b) RAshidAb
c) NurAb^
d) Ba'abish (sing. Ba'abushAwi)
a) FaragAb
b) Others
one of Burton's Beduin of the Hegaz among whom the name " hardmi" ("thief") was still honourable, and of the saying once quoted of the Crow Indians "Trust to
their honour and you are safe, to their honesty and they will steal the hair off your head" (Burton, Pilgrimage, 11, loi, 112).
^ See note to A 11, xii. The father of the " 'omda" of the Batahfn assured me
that their ancestors formed a part of the army of Khalid ibn Walid, the Prophet's
lieutenant, which invaded the eastern Sudan and converted the 'Anag
!
^ They connect the word with^^xj "to covet [s.c. the goods of others],"
i.e. "to loot."
^ The root ,Ji^j.£-, they say, means " to sprout thick and fast," i.e. " to thrive."
* From «Jlw, i-e- incisions in the cheek.
* I.e. "descendants of el Nur." There is no connection apparently between these and the Nurab sections of Kababfsh or Shukria.
* These have attached themselves to the Shukria, and are commonly reckoned a part of that tribe.