212 THE GA'ALIIN AND DANAGLA GROUP iii. i. xxiii.

tinually joking, laughing, and singing." They were " partly shepherds, and partly cultivators."

They had a ''Mek " of their own, nominated by the FuNGof Sennar, and were said to be able to put looo freemen and 500 slaves into the field.

Sir C. Wilson reported that they were "sometimes classed as Ja'alin, but the Ja'aUn repudiate them... it seems a question whether they are not of Bija origin."

{e) THE HAKIMAB XXIV The Hakimab, who are commonly grouped in the "nisbas" with the Gawabra, are a small tribe who are nevertheless regarded as much more distinctively Ga'aliin, in the limited sense of the term, than the Gawabra.

Their hereditary ''meks' ruled Arko Island and for long were the paramount princes of the surrounding country.

The germ from which the Hakimab are sprung was probably an immigrant Arab family who obtained the overlordship of the older inhabitants in like manner as did the Rabi'a in the east and the AwlAD Kanz round Aswan*.

if) THE GAWABRA* XXV The Gawabra are the most northernly riverain tribe in the Sudan to whom the name Arab can be applied with any real legitimacy.

Their headquarters are at Badi'n Island, near the frontier between Dongola Province and Mahass district, and they extend from the cataracts of Hannak to Tayti, including in their territories the islands of Arko and Makassir.

Burckhardt relates that' "after the promulgation of the Mohammedan creed"—presumably the allusion is to the thirteenth or fourteenth century—the Gawabra and the Gharbia, a branch of the ZenATA Berbers, took possession of the country between the first and second cataracts and in time obtained some measure of ascendancy over the Kanuz and other tribes who had preceded them.

In the reign of Selim I, very soon, that is, after the foundation in the south of the Fung kingdom, the GharbIa, having fallen out with the Gawabra and suffered heavily, sent an embassy to the Sultan and obtained from him a force of Bosnian auxiliaries. These ejected Q.v. p. 19. A small section still lives with the group of Bisharifn who inhabit Berber Province.

E.g. the MS. A I is counted a "Ga'ali" pedigree and its subject a Ga'ali: the occurrence of Hakim as his ancestor shews that he belongs to the Hakimab.

NichoUs, p. 7. * See pp. 149 and 150.

° Sing. " Gabri," i.e. "descendant of Gabir."

* Nicholls, p. 6. ' Nubia, pp. 133, 134.