1. 3. XXXII. AND THE NUBA OF MERGE 51

" 'Anag," and this term, it will be seen, is used in the native MSS.

as practically synonymous with "Nuba," though originally it seems

to have denoted one particular branch of Nuba who had become

semi-independent.

The Nuba strain was the most potent racial element in the Island

of Meroe from the days of the dynastic Egyptians until the coming

of the Muhammadans, though one would of course concede very

considerable local modifications due to admixture with the Bega, the

people of Abyssinia and, to some slight extent in the south, with the

Nilotic negroes.

4—2