250 THE GUHAYNA GROUP iii. 2. xiii.

Many of the Khawalda are in the south with the rest of the members of the Lahawiin-Kawasma group, and others are further

north in the neighbourhood of Wad Medani.

The 'AwAMRA are in the northern Gezira and have a few settle- ments on the banks of the Blue and White Niles above Khartoum.

The 'Amarna, the least numerous of the three, have villages near Gebel Moya.

The Fadni'a are partly nomadic and partly sedentary. The nomadic branch graze in the valley of the Hawad and all over the northern

part of the Island of Meroe^. Their neighbours are the Ga'aliin

proper, the Kawahla and the 'Aliab^. They include Halatwa, Ahaymerab, Nafafi'a, Helaywab and other sections.

The sedentary division of the Fadni'a cultivate on the river banks

in Berber Province and claim to be Ashraf^.

(d) THE SHUKRfA AND THE DUBASIIN

XIV The ShukrIa. From the generality of "nisbas" it would seem that the Shukr^a belong properly to the Guhayna group,

although they have pretensions to be Kuraysh*.

It is impossible to say at what period their ancestors first came to

the territories now occupied by the tribe in the Blue Nile and Kassala

Provinces. For some centuries the Shukria were of no particular

importance, though we hear vague rumours of fights with the ancient

inhabitants of Gebel Kayli for the possession of wells there^, and acts

of defiance to the Fung and HamAG of the Gezira^.

The foundations of the eminence to which they attained in the

^ Close to the ruins of Basa is the tomb of the "feki" Bafadni, a well-known sanctuary. (See Crowfoot in Arch. Surv. Nubia, xix, p. 13, and cp. D 6.)

^ The 'Alfab include sections called Yezfd, Idirga and Kimaylab.

* See A 2, A II, and especially D 6. BA classes the Fadnia as Guhayna.

* See C 5 (a) and (b). See also D 7, xi and ABC, xxviii, and notes thereto, from which it will appear that there may be a connection between the Shukria and the Arabian tribe of Yashkur, a branch of Kays 'Aylan.

^ In these traditions the Kayli folk are spoken of as 'Anag.

^ The following anecdote was told me by a Mesallami: " In the days when the Shukria were under the Hamag, the latter in their haughtiness bade the former not

to foul the

' Butana ' by leaving their she-camels' afterbirths (' silla ') in it but to take them away and throw them into the river. The Shukria had perforce to obey, but one youth dared to disobey and the Hamag king Torunga put him to death. A year

later, on the anniversary, Hammad, the brother of the murdered man, appeared before Torunga in armour and demanded his revenge. Torunga in wrath replied, 'Perform the marriage ceremony here and now to celebrate my marriage with this fellow's wife'—he reckoned Hammad, that is, as good as dead and his wife taken

as loot. The ceremony was then performed (in the lady's absence of course), and Torunga made ready to slay Hammad ; but Hammad slew Torunga with one blow, and Hammad's six companions slew the whole Hamag army."