1. 3. XXVII. AND THE NUBA OF MERGE 47

in good condition back... and thereupon I sent the troop Halen and the

troop Dakan and the troop Sabarat, and they plundered and laid waste down the Seda the Nuba towns of straw (houses) four, Naguso i . Towns

of masonry of the Kasu and Noba, Naszato i. D. v-r tali i, and reached

as far as the district of the red Noba, and in good condition returned my people back....And I set up my throne within the confluence of the river

Seda and Takaze, in sight of the town of masonry^... the island, which the Lord of heaven has given me... and I set up my throne here at the Seda through the strength of the Lord of heaven

XXVI Herewe have three distinct races mentioned : firstly, the Nuba

in the Island of Meroe, as far east as the Atbara, secondly, the Kasu

to the north-west near the junction of the Nile and the Atbara, and,

thirdly, the "Red Nuba" some distance further downstream.

Immediately downstream of the junction of the rivers the Kasu and the Nuba w^ould seem to have been dwelling side by side. It is hard to avoid hazarding an opinion that the "Red Nuba" may have been southernly colonies of Blemyes. As regards the difference

betw^een the "Kasu" and the "Nuba" of the inscription much

obviously depends on w^hether the interpretation of Miiller or of Littman and Krencker is correct; but in either case the "Kasu" would appear to be the more civilized and Egyptianized Meroitic

type and the " Nuba " the negro tribes of the out-districts. The matter must simply remain doubtful.

It is at least clear that by the middle of the fourth century a.d. Meroe had fallen on evil days and a process of disintegration had

set in. From now onwards we know nothing to speak of about the

history of the people living south of the confluence of the Nile and

the Atbara until the time of el Mas'udi and Ibn Seli'm el Aswani who wrote their descriptions of Nubia in the tenth century.

XXVII At W'hat date the Meroitic peoples became Christian we do not know. Abyssinia w^as converted about 330 a.d. and northern Nubia about two centuries later ; but the severance of friendly rela-

tions between the two countries which occurred in the middle of the

fourth century militated henceforth against the spread ofthe religious

beliefs of the one to the other, and so much so that when Christianity

of 'Aloa, be it noted, is also applied, both in the Axumite inscription and later by Abu Salih, to the town (Soba) as well as to the district. The name seems to survive in the dual form of " 'Alwan," the name of a district inland from Soba.

^ From "Takaze" to "heaven has" forms line 40 of the inscription. Crowfoot remarks that it is curious that there is no mention of Meroe itself in the inscription, although we Icnow that it was still the largest town in the district. But in line 40 there is a gap after the words "the town of masonry" which might surely have contained the name if the words translated "within the confluence of" can be applied to a site which is in the angle of the two rivers though fifty miles away from the actual junction.