I. 4. VI. THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 65

good-natured people. In fact the Arabs despise them as spiritless

and cowardly. Apart from cultivation their only industry appears

to be the making of burmas, or jars for water or merissa. The process is the same as in northern Kordofan, for instance. The ball of clay is placed on a piece of rough matting, the fist is

driven into it and the walls of the jar are driven out from the

inside. The mouthpiece and neck are made separately and super-

imposed.

Iron-workers are, as usual throughout Darfur, held in detestation,

but both the Zaghawa and the Berti harbour small colonies of servile

iron-workers from the west^.

There are two or three holy stones and trees in or near the Tagabo

hills^, where rites are performed once or twice a year. The usual

occasion is just before the rains are due to commence, but it is not

unusual for recourse to be had to these sites {"mahalldt 'awdid" =" places of customs") also at harvest time, immediately before the

reaping, in the hope of ensuring a good crop and fat kine. As at Midob, the intermediaries are old women who hold the right from mother to daughter, but the daughter does not practise until she has had children or is advanced in years. The space round the tree or

stone is carefully swept and sheep are sacrificed and offerings of

meat, milk, fat and flour are made and "worship is rendered." The

families of the old women officiating are allowed to sit close by and watch the rites, but the rest of the populace remain afar.

One informant denied any idea of a spirit or animal living below

the sacred tree or rock, but others on the contrary held there were

afdrit {sing, afrit =an (evil) spirit) there, though they had no notion

of their shape or form or attributes. The old women, they say, talk to

these and stroke and soothe the stone.

But, as a matter of fact, those Berti who have acquired some measure of civilization by contact with the Arabs are inclined to

regard the whole matter as a superstition, and it seems to be only among the ruder type living among the Tagabo hills that the rites

are still practised.

The Berti are subdivided into innumerable sections and the names of the greater number of these correspond to the names of

hills in or near Tagabo, but it was insisted by the head Shartdi

{'omda) of the tribe, from whom I obtained the following list, that

it was the hills which were called after the sections, and not vice versa.

^ See p. 89.

- One is at Sayah, one at the small hill which gives its name to the whole Tagabo range. The latter of these is the most important site of all.