262 THE GUHAYNA GROUP ill. 2. xxvi.

XXVI The GiLAYDAT though classed as Dar Hamid are regarded askance by the rest of the tribe. It appears that they represent a blend of some of the earliest Arab immigrants to Kordofan with the autochthonous negroids. Riippell, Pallme, Parkyns and others class them with the Ghodiat and Gawama'a.

Their present habitat is round Gebel Um " Shidera " {i.e. Shagera) on the south-west limits of Dar Hamid. Many Gilaydat were in Darfur, between el Fasher and the Hamar country, in Turkish days*, but since the devastation of the '' Mahdia" there have been no more than a few of their villages left there, and nearly all that survived settled in Kordofan.

Their subdivisions are as follows : RudAna Awlad Walid . Nasirat Awlad Defin Akashia • Umbadiria AwlAd Erbud Harbia {g) THE ZAYAdIA XXVII The Zayadia also appear from the "nisbas" to be related closely to the Fezara group.

They are frequently mentioned by travellers'* in the nineteenth century as one of the principal tribes of the northern steppes, generally in connection with forays on caravans or fights with the Kababish, Beni Gerar and Hamar, on the Wadi el Melik and even as far east as the Debba-El Haraza route.

In 1883 the Zayadia of Darfur were assessed for tribute at £e. 2500 and those of Kordofan at £e. 55 only"; but the tribe was all but wiped out in the " Mahdm," and now that it has recovered some small measure of prosperity the proportion in which it is distributed as between Darfur and Kordofan has been reversed on account of the persecution to which it was subjected by the Sultan 'AH Dinar. A number of the Awlad Gabir and Awlad Mufaddal sections still remain round el Mellit and el Sayah, north of el Fasher, but between 1904 and 191 3 nearly all the Awlad Gerbu'a fled for refuge to Kordofan'. They are now settled at Um Gozayn on the south-western confines of Dar Hamid, and such of them as have any wealth in herds remaining spend the " khartf" in the north-Burckhardt also mentions them in Darfur in 1814 (Nubia, p. 481). See note to BA, lxvii. These were mostly nomadic until the last decade. * E.g. Burckhardt, p. 481. See Cuny, p. 94. " See Stewart.

' The emigrants of 19 13 were accompanied by a few Gilaydat from Darfur.