III. 3. XIII. THE GUHAYNA GROUP 287

their cattle move southwards to the Bahr el 'Arab, where they come

into contact with the Dinka.

XIII MESSfRlA and Ta'ELBA. The Messiria are a large and power-

ful tribe in Kordofan, but now only sparsely represented in Darfur. In the former province they were by the middle of the eighteenth century the paramount tribe of Bakkara as far east as Sherkayla, but

the rise of the Hawazma in league with the Bedayri'a and others led

to the Messiria being pushed back into the strictly limited stretch

of country they now occupy round el Sinut, el Mafura and the Wadi

el Ghalla. In Darfur and Wadai too they were, previously to the Mahdia, very numerous^, but the havoc of that era and the exactions

of successive Sultans of Darfur drove many into south-eastern Wadai (Dar Runga). As soon as the French were established in the north many of these moved into their sphere of influence to escape the

clutches of the native dynasts, and now form a considerable pro- portion of the "Arabes refugies au Fitri^," These, it may be noted,

are largely breeders of camels. They bear a bad reputation as raiders.

The Messiria remaining in Darfur live a semi-sedentary life in

villages round Hammadi and Gebel Kirru to the east of Gebel Marra. They belong chiefly to the Zurruk branch and are breeders of cattle and sheep. Among them are a few Humr and a small colony of 'Arakiin from the Gezira.

The ''nisbas" in general agree that the Messiria are closely akin

to the Arabian Tha'aliba, but it is doubtful whether the apparent corroboration as to this point by the Arabian genealogists {see note on p. 281) is in fact corroboration at all or whether the tradition of the " nisbas " is not merely derived from the Arabian genealogists. It is curious to find in Darfur, living with the Messiria, a small tribe of Tha'aliba, or Ta'elba as they are generally called, and to find Carbon saying of them^ "Les Ta'aHba descendent de Ta'leb, fils de Missir"—a variation no doubt of the "Meskhir son of Tha'aHba" noticed above. Most of these Ta'elba live near the south-east corner of Gebel Marra as Bakkara, but a few live as villagers in northern

^ See el Tunisi, Oiiaddy..., p. 251, and Darfoiir..., pp. 129, 134, 297. Earth

(Joe. cit.) calls them "the third tribe amongst the Waday Arabs in respect to numbers." Domboli was their headquarters.

2 This process began in 1903 and the largest and most recent movement of the Messiria, from S.E. Wadai to Fitri district, took place in 1907. See Carbou, il, 48, 49. Nachtigal (see Carbou, 11, 75, 76) regarded them as of practically the same stock as the Salamat.

' Loc. cit. The same name occurs ("Ta'alba") among the North African Arabs. They were in the desert of Numidia near Takdemt in the sixteenth century, and Marmol, who calls them a branch of "Mahequil," i.e. Ma'akla, assessed them at 44,000 armed men in Algeria. There are still some in the same locality (see Carette, PP- 433-445)-