III. 2. XXXI. THE GUHAYNA GROUP 267
nt. the left leg round the upper joint. The folloAving are its commonest
forms ^
:
([) THE MA'ALIA and THE MA'AKLA
XXXI The MA'Alia. The Ma'alia are related to the Dar Hamid
group, but have long been entirely independent of it, and at best were rather allies attracted by cousinship than brethren who seceded from a family league.
The tribe is divided between Darfur and Kordofan. At the close
of the Turkish epoch the Ma'alia of Darfur, camel-owners in the
north and cattle-owners in the south, were assessed for tribute at
j^E. 1450 as compared with ^^E. 149 charged against the branch in
Kordofan^. The tendency had long been for the latter to decamp
westwards to evade the oppression of the Turks. But after the dis-
appearance of the Turkish regime and the subsequent crushing of
the Dervish revolt a like motive led to a steady infiltration of Ma'alia from Darfur into Kordofan.
By 19 1 6 there were no Ma'alia at all in northern Darfur and
only a few round their old headquarters at Shakka in the south-east
or living as refugees among their powerful neighbours the Rizaykat. But with the fall of 'Ali Dinar in May, 1916, began yet another return movement from Kordofan to Darfur and though the Ma'alia are
still far more numerous in the former they are anxious to recolonize
their ancient domains in Darfur and will probably, before long, be
fairly evenly distributed between the two provinces. In Kordofan
their chief colony is round Gebel Gleit (Klayt), south of the Meganin and west of the other Dar Hamid ; but there are many others settled
in el Nahud, el Odaya, Um Ruaba^, Dilling and el Obeid districts.
All these are partly sedentary but primarily nomadic. In the rains
they send their herds north-westwards : in the summer most stay in
their villages, but the richer folk go southwards in the wake of the Bakkara for the sake of the grazing.
^ A similar brand, viz. y\\ is used by the Beshr section of 'Anaza of 1, viz. I Arabia (Doughty, Arabia Des. i, 125 and 331 ; Zwemer, p. 279).
^ Stewart.
^ It would be these of whom Burckhardt heard as living between el Obeid and the Shilluk country (Nubia, p. 482).