The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

Snakes are also plentiful, many poisonous kinds being found. In the steppe regions of Kordofan, Darfur, etc., and in the Nubian desert, ostriches are fairly plentiful. Insect life is very abundant, especially south of 12° N., the northern limit of the tsetse fly. The chief pests are mosquitoes, termites and the serut, a brown fly about the size of a wasp, with a sharp stab, which chiefly attacks cattle.

Inhabitants.

The population, always sparse in the desert and steppe regions, was never dense, even in the more fertile south ern districts. Excluding Darfur, the population before the Mandist rule was estimated at 8,5oo,000. After the desolation of the Mandia, an estimate made in i9o5 put the population at 1,853,000.

This included ii,000 foreigners, of whom 2,800 were Europeans. Since that year there has been a rapid increase, and in 1926 the population was officially estimated at close on six million.

The northern portion of the Sudan is occupied by Hamitic and Semitic tribes, chiefly nomads, and classed as Arabs. In the Nile valley north of Khartoum the inhabitants, especially the so-called Nubians, are of very mixed origin. Elsewhere, the inhabitants north of 12° N. are of mixed Arab descent. In the Nubian desert the chief tribes are the Ababda and Bisharin. In the region south of Berber and Suakin are the Hadendoa. The Jaalin, Hassania and Shukria inhabit the country between the Atbara and Blue Nile; the Hassania and Hassanat are found chiefly in the Gezira. The Kabbabish occupy the desert country north of Kordofan, which is the home of the Baggara tribes. In Darfur the inhabi tants are of mixed Arab and negro blood.

Of negro Nilotic tribes there are three or four main divisions. The Shilluks occupy the country along the west side of the Nile northward from about Lake No. The Dinkas are widely spread over the Bahr-el-Ghazal province. South of Kordofan and west of the Shilluk territory are the Nubas, apparently the original stock of the Nubians. In the south-west of the Bahr el-Ghazal are the Bongos and other tribes, and along the Nile Congo water-parting are the A-Zande or Niam-Niam, a compara tively light-coloured race.

Social Conditions.

In contrast with the Egyptians, a most industrious race, the Sudanese tribes, both Arab and negro, are, as a general rule, indolent. Where wants are few and simple, where houses need not be built nor clothes worn to keep out the cold, there is little stimulus to exertion. Many Arabs "clothed in rags,

with only a mat for a house, prefer to lead the life of the free-born sons of the desert, no matter how large their herds or how numerous their followings." Following the establishment of Brit ish control, slave-raiding and the slave trade were stopped, but domestic slavery continues. A genuine desire for education is manifest among the Arabic-speaking peoples, and slow but dis tinct moral improvement is visible among them. The Dongolese people are the keenest traders in the country. The Arab tribes are all Mohammedans, credulous and singularly liable to fits of religious excitement. Most of the negro tribes are pagan, but some of them who live in the north have embraced Islam.

Divisions and Chief Towns.

The Sudan is divided into mudirias (provinces) and these are subdivided into mamuria.

The mudirias are Haifa, Red sea, Dongola and Berber in the north (these include practically all the region known as Nubia) ; Khar toum, Blue Nile and White Nile in the centre; Kassala and Fung in the east ; Darfur (until recently under native rule), Kordofan and Nuba mountains in the west ; and Bahr-el-Ghazal, Upper Nile (formerly Fashoda) and Mongalla in the south. The mudirias vary considerably in size.

The capital, Khartoum, is built in the fork formed by the junction of the White and Blue Niles. Opposite Khartoum, on the west bank of the White Nile, is Omdurman, the capital of the Sudan during the Mandia. On the Nile, north of Khartoum, are the towns of Berber, Abu Hamed, Merawi (Merowe), Don gola and Wadi Haifa. On the Red sea are Port Sudan and Suakin. Kassala is on the river Gash, east of the Atbara and near the Eritrean frontier. On the Blue Nile are Kamlin, Sennar, Wad Medani, a thriving business centre and capital of the Blue Nile mudiria, and Roseires, which marks the limit of navigability by steamers of the river. Gallabat is a town in the Kassala mudiria, close to the Abyssinian frontier, and Gedaref lies be tween the Blue Nile and Atbara. El Obeid, the chief town of Kordofan, is 23o m. S.W. by S. of Khartoum. Duiem, capital of the White Nile mudiria, is the river port for Kordofan. El Fasher, the capital of Darfur, is 500 m. W.S.W. of Khartoum. All the towns named, except Roseires, are situated north of 13° N. In the south of the Sudan there are no towns properly so called. Fashoda, renamed Kodok, is the headquarters of the Upper Nile mudiria.