more than a thousand years
the influence of Mohammedanism, which appears to possess a strange
fascination for negroid races, has been permeating the Soudan, and,
although ignorance and natural obstacles impede the progress of new
ideas, the whole of the black race is gradually adopting the new
religion and developing Arab characteristics. In the districts of the
north, where the original invaders settled, the evolution is complete,
and the Arabs of the Soudan are a race formed by the interbreeding
of negro and Arab, and yet distinct from both. In the more remote and
inaccessible regions which lie to the south and west the negro race
remains as yet unchanged by the Arab influence. And between these
extremes every degree of mixture is to be found. In some tribes pure
Arabic is spoken, and prior to the rise of the Mahdi the orthodox Moslem
faith was practised. In others Arabic has merely modified the ancient
dialects, and the Mohammedan religion has been adapted to the older
superstitions; but although the gap between the Arab-negro and the
negro-pure is thus filled by every intermediate blend, the two races
were at an early date quite distinct.

The qualities of mongrels are rarely admirable, and the mixture of
the Arab and negro types has produced a debased and cruel breed, more
shocking because they are more intelligent than the primitive savages.
The stronger race soon began to prey upon the simple aboriginals; some
of the Arab tribes were camel-breeders; some were goat-herds; some were
Baggaras or cow-herds. But all, without exception, were hunters of men.
To the great slave-market at Jedda a continual stream of negro captives
has flowed for hundreds of years. The invention of gunpowder and the
adoption by the Arabs of firearms facilitated the traffic by placing the
ignorant negroes at a further disadvantage. Thus the situation in the
Soudan for several centuries may be summed up as follows: The dominant
race of Arab invaders was unceasingly spreading its blood, religion,
customs, and language among the black aboriginal population, and at the
same time it harried and enslaved them.

The state of society that arose out of this may be easily imagined. The
warlike Arab tribes fought and brawled among themselves in ceaseless
feud and strife. The negroes trembled in apprehension of capture, or
rose locally against their oppressors. Occasionally an important Sheikh
would effect the combination of many tribes, and a kingdom