56 THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR i. 4. iv.
parties honteuses au moyen de cuirs tannes de chameau et de chevre, qui sont converts de diverses sortes d'incisions et d'ornements.
II y a dans ce pays une montagne nommee Loukia (a^S^Y, tres haute et d'un difficile acces, bien qu'elle soit formee d'une terre blanche
et moUe. Nul ne peut, sans perir, approcher des cavernes qui se trouvent sur son sommet, attendu, d'apres ce qu'on assure, qu'on y trouve des serpents d'une grosseur enorme qui s'elancent sur quiconque se dirige
sans le savoir vers leurs retraites, ce qui fait que les habitants du pays les redoutent et les evitent....Les habitants de ce canton sont Zaghaw^iens et
leur tribu se nomme Sakouat; ils sont tres sedentaires, possedent de nom- breux troupeaux de chameau de race estimee, fabriquent leurs vetements
et les tentes oii ils demeurent avec le poil de ces animaux, et se nourrissent de leur lait, de leur beurre et de leur chair. Chez eux les legumes sont
rare ; cependant ils cultivent le dhorra, qui (comme on sait) est la principale production du Zaghawa: on y apporte quelquefois du ble de Wardjelan
et d'ailleurs.
Late in the fourteenth century, it is said, the Zaghawa came under the domination of the Bulala^.
Ibn Khaldun (1332^1406) speaks of the Tawarek as a section of Sanhaga Berbers who include the kindred tribes of Lamtuna, Zaghawa and Lamta and have frequented the tracts separating the
country of the Berbers from that of the blacks since a time long
previous to Islam^. But he also quotes Ibn Sa'id (1214-1287) to the
effect that there were Zaghawa living next to the Nubians, i.e. further
east, and that they were Muhammadans and included a section called "Tagua^."
Makri'zi (fl. 1400), or Ibn Sa'id from whom he copies, tells us
that "all the nations between Abyssinia on the south. Nubia on
the east, Barka on the north, and Takrur on the west are called
'Zaghai^.'"
Leo Africanus (fl. 1528) evidently refers to the Zaghawa and the
cognate Kura'an when he speaks of the journey between Cairo and Bornu as dangerous owing to the depredations of "certaine theeves
called Zingani," and when, in the passage previously quoted, he
says "the king of Nubia maintaineth continuall warre partly against
the people of Goran (who being descended of the people called
Zingani, inhabite the deserts and speake a kinde of language that
^ Or "Lounia" (AaJ^J).
^ Barth, iii, Ch. li, p. 428, quotim? Makrfzi and Abu el Fidd; but it is probable
that the allusion is merely to the Zaghawa of Kdnem.
* Ed. de Slane, Bk. n, 64.
* Ibid. p. 105, and ed. ar., VI, 199; Bk. iii. A variant for "Tdgua" (5^».lj) reads "Tagra" (5^a.l3).
' Cooley, p. 98.