Note 495 — Chapter XI

Sometimes the Barabras are also similarly designated, in my opinion wrongly, for this leads to a triple confusion, “Nuba” being still the name of a Negro tribe (see p. 444). It would be more correct to employ this term as a synonym of Northern Ethiopian; besides, according to Strabo (Book XVII.), Eratosthenes refers to the “Nubians” in his time as a people distinct from the Negroes and Egyptians. The Barabras are not so dark, have not such frizzy hair, and are not so tall as the Bejas, the Hamrans, and other Ethiopians their neighbours, and consequently belong, not only by their language, but also by their physical type, to the Arabo-Berber group.