the districts situated to the south within the immense loop
described by the river between Dongola and Khartoum, those vast plains
intersected by the windings of the White and Blue Niles, known as the
regions of Kordofan and Darfur; it was bounded by the mountains of
Abyssinia, the marshes of Lake Nu, and all those semi-fabulous countries
to which were relegated the "Isles of the Manes" and the "Lands of
Spirits." It was separated from the Red Sea by the land of Puanit; and
to the west, between it and the confines of the world, lay the Timihu.
Scores of tribes, white, copper-coloured, and black, bearing strange
names, wrangled over the possession of this vaguely defined territory;
some of them were still savage or emerging from barbarism, while others
had attained to a pitch of material civilization almost comparable with
that of Egypt. The same diversity of types, the same instability and the
same want of intelligence which characterized the tribes of those days,
still distinguish the medley of peoples who now frequent the upper
valley of the Nile. They led the same sort of animal life, guided by
impulse, and disturbed, owing to the caprices of their petty chiefs, by
bloody wars which often issued in slavery or in emigration to distant
regions.

[Illustration: 355.jpg KUSHITE PRISONERS BROUGHT TO EGYPT]

Drawn by Faucher-Guclin, from the water-colour drawing by
Mr. Blackden.

With such shifting and unstable conditions, it would be difficult to
build up a permanent State. From time to time some kinglet, more daring,
cunning, tenacious, or better fitted to govern than the rest, extended
his dominion over his neighbours, and advanced step by step, till he
united immense tracts under his single rule. As by degrees his kingdom
enlarged, he made no efforts to organize it on any regular system, to
introduce any uniformity in the administration of its affairs, or to
gain the adherence of its incongruous elements by just laws which would
be equally for the good of all: when the massacres which accompanied his
first victories were over, when he had incorporated into his own army
what was left of the vanquished troops, when their children were led
into servitude and he had filled his treasury with their spoil and his
harem with their women, it never occurred to him that there was anything
more to be done. If he had acted otherwise, it would not probably have
been to his advantage. Both his former and present subjects