III. 2. XXXIII. THE GUHAYNA GROUP 269 The names 'Abadia and Bisharia are noteworthy as suggesting eastern connections, and there is actually a tradition among the Bisharia that Khadra their ancestress was married by el Hag Bishari, "a feki from the East," and that they are not Arabs at all but Bega and have many relatives in the eastern deserts.

There is, however, no reason to assume that the other branch of the Ma'akla, the Sama'i'n, is in any way connected with the Bega or that the original Bisharia were anything but foreigners from the racial point of view.

The tribe as a whole claims to be related to the Fezara group and appears so in the "nisbas." The only other people I have met with bearing the same name are the Ma'akla section of the Beli. These are the ruling clan of that tribe both in Eg5pt and on the Arabian coast near Wegh, and it is possible that they may be connected with the great branch of Beni Hilal called the Ma'akl (perverted in Leo Africanus into "Machill" and by Marmol into "Mahequil"), who were by origin Yemenites and had joined the Beni Hilal congeries in their great invasion of Barbary.

Whether there is any connection between the Ma'akla of Kordofan and these other Ma'akla it is not possible at present to say.

(m) THE DWAYH, OR DWAYHfA XXXIII The DwAYHiA are a small and unimportant tribe scattered from the Nile westwards.

At the time of the Turkish conquest a colony of them, "fekis'' by calling, lived at Shibba in Dar el Shaikia and were held in great repute locally; but when the Shaikia, who had relied upon the charms and assurances of these holy men to defeat the invaders, found that they had been deceived, they massacred the whole body and destroyed their village.

A few of the Dwayhia are still to be found scattered among the Blue Nile villages, at el Mas'udia for instance; but the main body of the tribe—and it is a very small one—is nomadic in habit and accompanies the Kawahla in Kordofan throughout the j'ear.

The chief division of the Dwayh of Kordofan is the Awlad Salati. Their camel brand is a " Jiildl," or crescent moon, a sign also used by the Dar Ham id branch of Kababish, on the right side of the neck.

See Ibn Khaldun, ed. ar. \'ol. 6, pp. 15, 17 (jJ.AJtoJI).

- Leo, pp. 142, 150; Marmol, p. 76.

' Nicholls, p. 39.