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CHAPTER 4
The non-Arab Races of Ddrfur
I The consideration of the races who inhabited Darfur^ before the Arabs is, on the one hand, rendered more difficult by the lack of modern scientific research, and, on the other, made more easy by
the fact that the Arabs have coalesced so slightly with the older popu-
lation that it is still easy to pick out the non-Arab elements. Several
intrepid and accomplished travellers have visited the country and
brought back valuable information, but anthropology had not in
their days made such giant strides as now, and their statements are
not always backed by scientific data of the type available for Egypt and Lower Nubia. It is the researches of Barth and Nachtigal and
the acute observations of el Tunisi that have cast most light on the
pre-Arab element in Darfur.
II BedayAt. The northern portion of Darfur is contained in that
vast unfertile northernly portion of Africa which is set aside by nature
for those who lead a pastoral life. Scattered in insignificant numbers
as far south as Kebkebia and Kuttum, but chiefly roaming further
north in the Ennedi district outside Darfur are the Bedayat, a wild and entirely nomadic race related to the Zaghawa. Their geo-
graphical position between the Kura'an (to the north) and the Zaghawa (to the south) roughly represents also their ethnographical
status. Barth^ calls them "Terauye" and says the Arabs call them "A'uwa." The Arabs of Kordofan and Darfur speak always of "Bedayat," and "A'uwa" seems to be the Kura'an name for them and "Terauye" or "Terawa" a name applied to them by the Arabs
of Borku^. Lieut. Ferrandi divides the Bedayat into (a) a northern
group, and (b) a southern group called Billia, and says they claim
to have once been Christians^. In Barth's time most of them were
pagans, but they now profess Muhammadanism^. Parties of these Bedayat periodically swoop down over the deserts that intervene
^ " Ddrfur" means "The Country of the Fur."
^ Vol. HI, App. I, p. 496.
^ See " Renseignements Coloniaux," p. 308, in L'Afrique Frattfaise (Suppl.), Dec. 1914. *
• Ibid. On this point see App. 5 to this chapter.
^ El Tunisi (Voy. au Ouaddy, p. 17) speaks of the Bedaydt as not of Arab origin though their manners and way of life, but not their language, are those of the Arabs. He classes them (p. 25) as nomadic negroes or " pseudo-beduins."