1. 4. IV. THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 57
no other nation vnderstandeth) and partly against certaine other
people^."
The Zaghawa are still much where they were in Leo's time, but
the nomad Arabs have interposed to a larger degree between them and Nubia, and the only colony of them now between Darfur and
the Nile is at Kagmar in Kordofan, This settlement was probably made early in the eighteenth century ^ and includes the "Zaghawa
hills " of el Roy'ian and el 'Atshan : it is now in gradual process of
arabicization ; and the same applies in a less degree to the semi- nomadic Zaghawa of Darfur, who, though they do not call them-
selves Arabs and have not yet faked Arab pedigrees, speak Arabic and with Muhammadanism have adopted many Arab customs. They
still, however, retain their belief in rainmakers (hdgp). They are
a lithe, stalwart and active folk, of the same cast of countenance as
the TiBBU, very black-skinned^, and much addicted to raiding and
blood feuds.
The Fur call them "Merida," the Midobis "Kebadi," the Tama (and Erenga) "Kuyuk," and they call themselves "Berri"; but in
the dialects of the Dagu and others they appear as "Zagawa." The BiRKED use the form "Zauge."
El Tunisi gives ^ a number of details concerning the Zaghawa at
the beginning of the nineteenth century. Their country, a very
spacious area in north-western Darfur was ruled by a tributary
sultan who had twelve meliks subject to him. It was often known
as "Dar Tekenyaouy,"^ a term also used however to include the Berti country immediately east of it. The Zaghawa and Berti, though living as neighbours, "par un trait frappant de la sagesse
divine," were very different in character, the advantage both in morals and appearance lying with the latter. The Zaghawa were at feud with the Mahamid Arabs.
^ Cp. Chap. 2, XLi, of this Part. The reference to Leo is Bk. vii, 826 and 828. Temporal translated "Zingane" as "Gypsies" and Dr Brown (Leo, p. 828) thinks
this correct. On p. 826 {loc. cit.) he says the Zingani cannot be classed with any known people. Sir C. Wilson {Journ. Anthr. Inst. Aug. 1887) thought the Zingani might be Kababish Arabs "not yet arabicized." The Gypsies in Syria and Asia Minor are still called "tchingene" (von Luschan, loc. cit. p. 227).
^ See MacMichael, Tribes..., p. 109.
' "Hogon" is also the word used on the Hombori plateau (Upper Niger) for a rainmaker or sorcerer (see MacMichael, loc. cit. 114). For their belief in certain holy stones and trees see Para, viii of this chapter.
* Cp. Carbou, 11, 209. * Voyage au Darfour, pp. 128, 132, 133, 136-139, 297.
* The term is said by el Tunisi to mean " the left arm or wing [of the Sultan] "
;
but the Fur of the present tell me it denotes the loins ("sulub"). "T^k^nyaouy" was the title of its ruler, a functionary quite distinct from the local Sultan and apparently a kind of viceroy of the Sultan of Darfur (see loc. cit. pp. 132, 133, 138). The title still survives, though its holder has neither authority nor duties.