Fig. 9. Sunset on the Red Sea
Plate VI
Fig. 10. A young man of the Amarar
(Note absence of sewn clothing)
CHAPTER II
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS
Note. My account of the natives is based on my dealings with the people at a point about a hundred miles north of Port Sudan, on the boundary between the tribes of Bisharia and Amarar, but it would apply to those of the south in most essentials.
Nationalities
Three perfectly distinct nationalities have representatives on this coast[8]. Besides the natives proper there are true Arabs from the other side of the Red Sea, and negroes, who are slaves or the descendants of slaves brought over the mountains from the upper Nile valley.
The true natives are called, and call themselves, Arabs, and many of them speak Arabic. For all that they are no more Arabs than they are Europeans, being of Hamitic not of Semitic race, allied to the ancient Egyptians and far less mingled with Arab blood than are the so-called “Arabs” of Modern Egypt[9].