54 THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR i. 4. ii.
riding through the Khor, and why the ground underneath was sprinkled with fine sand. The question surprised him, and for a moment he was
silent ; he then answered that it was the usual meeting place in which tribal matters were discussed. "The Maheria Arabs," said I, "wanted to graze
their cattle near the tree; but w^hen I saw that it was dedicated for some
special purpose, I prevented them from doing so." He thanked me most
heartily, and I could see that, though a fanatical Moslem himself, he was determined to uphold the ancient manners and customs of his tribe, and
so retain his hold over them. I subsequently learned that it was entirely through him that the holy tree was preserved.
Among the subdivisions of the Bedayat in Darfur are the Birayra,
the Galligerki, the Kotierra, the Sar and the Urdia.
III Kura'An. The Kura'an for the most part live to the north of
the Bedayat and also outside Darfur, but a few of them are scattered among the latter tribe and the Zaghawa. Their possible identity with
the ancient Garamantes and their other racial affinities have been
discussed in an earlier chapter. I may add here that such of them as
I have met in Darfur identify themselves with the Daza (they say
the terms are synonymous) as a branch of the Teda (or Ankazza). They admit only a distant relationship with the Bedayat and an even more remote one with the Zaghawa and do not understand the common language of those tribes. The Tibbu to the north of them,
they say, speak a language similar to their own, but not identical
with it^. They disclaim all connection with the Tuwarek (" Kenin "). The only branches of Kura'an I have heard mentioned are the
following
:
Bulta D6nza GAmA KiLLIA Birrasa Dudirnia Kokurda Noarma Murdinga, or Murdia Jigada (in the west)
IV ZaghAwa. Mixed with the Bedayat, but mainly to the south
of them, in northern Darfur, are the Zaghawa^. This large tribe is mainly a mixture of Hamitic Tibbu and negro^, and has Libyo- Berber affinities. They were known to the mediaeval Arab geographers,
but the bulk of them in the middle ages appear to have been consider-
' Curiously enough, when I was asking some Bedayat, I^ura'an and Zaghawa with what tribe in particular they connected the Tibbu they replied that the Tibbu were reputed to have been in old days relatives of the Hadendoa of the Eastern Sudan. The strain common to both is of course the Hamitic.
' See MacMichael in jfaurn. Attthr. Inst. XLU, 1912, and Tribes..., Ch. vni.
^ Keane, Encycl. Brit. art. "Sudan," and cp. Cust, i, 253, and Carbou, H, 209. Nachtigal, on the other hand, denied, on grounds that seem insufficient, that they were a Tibbu race. See Voy. au Ouadai, p. 73.