Note 199 — NEGROLAND divided into Nations.

By the expression that the Nubians are brethren of the Zinj, it must be understood that they are of negro origin; and indeed there is little reason to doubt that the Nubians on the Nile were originally a servile population, the progeny of the Nubah of Kordofán, who, in the course of events, became sole possessors of their master’s domains. Their emancipation was forwarded by powerful external causes (see Edinb. Rev. No. 125. p. 297), and does not appear to have been accomplished by means of revolt or invasion, as was the case with the Zinj in Baṣrah, and the Funj in Sennár (Bruce’s Trav. vol. VI. p. 370). When the Arabs conquered Nubia, they exacted an annual tribute of slaves, which was called Bakt (Quatremère, Mémoires sur la Nubie, II. p. 42), a word evidently derived from the ancient Egyptian language, in which Bok signified a slave.