AFARS (DANAKIL), a tribe of African "Arabs" of Hamitic stock. They occupy the arid coast-lands between Abyssinia and the sea. They claim to be Arabs, but are more akin to the Gaila and Somali. The tribe is roughly divisible into a pastoral and a coast-dwelling group. Their religion is chiefly fetich and tree worship ; many, nominally, profess Mohammedanism. They are distinguished by narrow straight noses, thin lips and small pointed chins. They wear, generally, nothing but a waist-cloth. They are divided into many sub-tribes, each having an hereditary sultan. See Fr. Scazamucci and E. H. Giglioli, Notizie sui Danakil (1884) ; P. Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas (2 vols., Berlin, 1893 i896), and Die geographische Erforschung der Adcil-Lander and Harars in Ost-Afrika (Leipzig, 1884).