224 THE GA'ALlfN AND DANAGLA GROUP iii. i. xxxi.
des montagnes du Koudjara^, et issus de Mesaabaat^," and though
this was an overstatement, a comparison of two quotations, from Prout and el Tunisi respectively, illustrate the Darfur connection of
the Gawama'a.
1. Prout^. Among the Gowameh (one of the old races) is found a still more singular
practice. With them no girl has the right to marry until she shall have presented to her brother a child as his bondman. The father of this child she chooses when and where she will
As a matter of fact Prout is not entirely accurate : the child used
to go to the girl's' maternal uncle and the phrase lyJl*. ws3U ("she
has assisted her mother's brother") is still occasionally used as a
pleasant euphemism.
2. El Tunisi*.
Plusieurs fiUes deviennent ainsi enceintes; en cela il n'y a ni honte ni deshonneur, meme s'il y a en inceste. Les enfants, gar9ons ou fiUes, nes de ces relations sont mis sur le compte d'un oncle maternel. La fiUe qui en provient est mariee plus tard par cet oncle, qui profite alors du douaire que paye I'epoux.
The connection of the Gawama'a with Darfur is also evidenced by the fact that in Kordofan and Darfur alike many of them are be-
lieved to have the power of transmogrifying themselves into beasts
of prey, a trait most commonly ascribed by native opinion to the Fur
tribes. It was mentioned in an earlier chapter that in Darfur these Gawama'a—who turn themselves into hyaenas—are known as AwLAD Mana. The Darfur strain, too, must have been considerably
reinforced in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when the Musaba'at and Kungara in turn dominated northern and central
Kordofan^.
During the earlier years of their residence in Kordofan the Gawama'a were under the Ghodiat, but as they increased in numbers and collected more and more scattered units into their
^ I.e. the Kungara branch of the Fur.
^ Le. the Musaba'at section of Kungara. ^ Prout, p. 34.
* Voy. au Ddrfoiir, p. 213. He is speaking of the Fur apparently, but he does not as a rule differentiate very carefully between the Fur and the inhabitants of Darfur. It is therefore possible that he refers to Gawama'a settled in Darfur. It
is more likely, however, that the Gawama'a and the Fur both used the custom and
that for both it had a common origin. Cuny speaks of the custom, in rather differ-
ent terms, as existing "chez la plupart des peuplades du Kordofan." The use of
the particular phrase " 'anat Khalaha" (wrongly printed on p. 159, " ariatkal-hum
for "anat Khalhum") he attaches, like Prout, to the Gawama'a ("Djoama"), but it was also used to a less extent among the Dar Hamid. (Cuny, pp. 158, 159, 173, 174.)
^ Cp. Holroyd, p. 176. "The inhabitants of Kordofan belong to several tribes. The most numerous, called Giinjarah" [i.e. Kungara], "consists of adherents of Sultan Fadl; the second is called Meserbat" \i.e. Musaba'at].