326 THE KAWAHLA GROUP iii.s.iv.

it is noteworthy that they held the sheikhship of the whole tribe for two generations^.

The Dar Hamid, who hold the sheikhship at the present day and

are the wealthiest of all the sections, belong to the Guhayna group^ and joined the Kawahla after the advent of the latter to Kordofan.

These western Kawahla spend the dry season (December to

June) in the Khayran near Bara, unless they have been able, by digging

wells at Um Badr, to defer their retirement south-east for another month or two. They graze their herds in the Khayran and there-

abouts free of payment, but as having no proprietary rights they are

compelled to pay for the water they draw from the wells. Cultivation

they have none^. When the rains fall the whole tribe moves north-

westwards to the neighbourhood of the Wadi el Melik and remain

there for so long as grass and water permit*.

V The eastern Kawahla are not composed of sections whose

parentage is entirely distinct from that of the western group.

They divide the whole tribe into thirteen sections each descended from a different son of Kahil. However, the names of these thirteen

sons vary to some extent^ and it is useless to attempt an accurate

grouping of the subdivisions imder their names. The best known of

the subdivisions are the following^:

TBerAkna. Chiefly in Kordofan. JKamalab

[Kimaylab, a small nomad group of these also lives in Berber district.

Marghumab'. a section of these is with the Shukria near Abu Delayk. A few others are nomadic in Damer district (Berber). Delaykab^ AsAwmA /Hasania^

GlMAYLIA Ghazalab I'UrwAb. On the White Nile, chiefly the west bank, south of the Gamu'ia, sonaytab

^ Gadulla Balilu in the Dervish days, and his son 'Abdullah after the reoccu- pation till 19 lo.

^ See above, p. 256.

^ The only Kawahla cultivation west of the White Nile is that belonging to some sedentary 'Ababda and others in the White Nile Province.

* The colony of so-called Kawahla in the Nuba mountains near Gebel I^edfr

are escaped slaves or freedmen and not true Kawahla at all.

^ See C I for the variations.

* The brackets give some indication as to which sections are most closely con- nected with one another.

' See D 2, XXVII and B|p, 74 ("Markumab").

* See sub Batahin. ^ Dealt with separately: see later.