III. The Negroids.
A large portion of the African continent is occupied by tribes of dark hue, but lacking some of the most prominent traits of the true negro. These are the “Negroids,” who are probably the products of a long and close fusion of the Negro with the Hamitic and Semitic types. Their color is not black, but a dark, reddish, coppery brown; the hair is crisp and frizzly, but not woolly; the nose is straight and better formed than that of the negro; the lips are thick, the skull long, and the peculiar odor of the negro is absent.
We find these traits in two groups, both of which unquestionably had their historic origin along the Nile, above the first cataract, and in the region drained by its tributaries—in other words, the locality where for ten thousand years or more the Hamites and the Negroes have been in constant contact.
We can only speculate on the numberless wars and marriages, on the extensive slave trade and commercial intercourse which throughout this period have blended the races into so many intermediate types that it becomes impossible in many cases to say with which a given tribe should be classified. To add to the confusion, a large Semitic element was added at two epochs, one when the Abyssinian branch of the Semites moved across from Arabia to occupy Abyssinia, the other when, under the impulsion of the fanaticism of Islam, the Arabs followed up the Nile in their proselyting campaigns.
The latter event began in the seventh century of our era and has continued ever since. The former probably began in earnest in the height of the power of the Himyaritic states of southern Arabia, which we may roughly put at seven centuries before Christ. A century or two later than this, negro tribes from the Sudan overran the decaying cities of the upper Nile and established a temporary control along its banks; and the emperor Diocletian induced many of them to settle as far north as Assuan.[123] These various influences combined to produce the numerous mixed types which one sees along the Nile, rendering its ethnography peculiarly obscure.
Under the pressure of increasing population and external inroads, these mixed peoples divided into two groups, one, the Nubian, remaining in the original district, the other, the Bantu, removing to the south and southwest.
1. The Nubian Group
Includes the Nubas proper, who are partly a mixed people, while some of them are pure negroes from Kordofan; the Barabras, who dwell on both sides of the Nile between the first and second cataracts; the Fundjas and Bertas, further south; and the Monbuttus and Nyam Nyams, or Sandehs, near Lake Victoria Nyanza, besides many tribes of less note. Most of them are more or less agricultural, and live in small villages. Their clothing is very slight, and many tattoo the skin. The Sandeh and Monbuttu are cannibals, and even eat those who die of disease. Nevertheless, they have a knowledge of metals, and are skilful iron-smiths.
The physical appearance of most of these tribes differs equally from the Arab and the negro. They are generally of medium stature with thin limbs and flat feet. The hair is crisp, but not woolly, and the color varies from a black to a white brown. The beard is meagre and the skin hairless. The features are not of the negro cast, but assimilate rather those of the European.
Most of them are agriculturists in a small way. They raise the “caffre corn” and millet, and make some efforts to irrigate their fields where it is necessary. Their dwellings are wretched huts, and their arts are of the rudest.