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 offshoots of that early group of Arab immigrants to whose descendants the name Ga'aliin is applied. They are certainly less noticeably contaminated 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 withxj "to covet [s.c. the goods of others]," i.e. "to loot."

The root ,Jij.£-, 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.