mate destination was Mecca. Sultan Abd'el Rachman, who reigned over Dar Fûr during Mr. Browne's stay in that country, had been dead seven years, and had been succeeded by his son Mahomed, whose character was considered as very superior to that of his father. My informant also told me, that he had heard of a white man having visited the capital, and mentioned, of his own accord, that he had been ill-treated by the ruling sovereign, remarking at the same time, that if any stranger were now to enter the country, his reception would be very different.
These men appeared to be perfect negroes; their skins were of a shining black, and their features coarse and ill-favoured. They spoke Arabic almost as fluently as their native language, which was Fûrian: and of the latter they gave me a pretty copious vocabulary, which will be found inserted in the Appendix. On my return to England, I submitted this to the perusal of my friend Mr. Browne, who immediately recognized "about a dozen words;" but found that "they did not bear any resemblance to the Shilha language," which he had before suspected. The melancholy fate which has since befallen this traveller, who was barbarously murdered by a band of robbers in an attempt to penetrate to the north-east of Persia, renders his remarks on this subject particularly valuable; I have therefore inserted the whole of his note at the bottom of the page;[1] and to those who, like myself, admired his unassuming worth and extraordinary acquirements, this slight tribute of respect to his memory may not prove unacceptable.
- ↑ Dear Sir,
I recognise without difficulty about a dozen words of the Fûrian vocabulary. I do not trace any resemblance to the Shilha however, as I suspected. Two or three words resemble those of the same meaning in my vocabulary of Dar Kunga, in which Har signifies foot, and Gnung, meat, the latter very like your Neno, bread. Dùl and Doual, for sun and moon, were given to Mr. Hamilton (vide p. 24 of his Travels) for Fûrian words by a Tocruri, or faquir, whom he met at the Cataract going to Mecca in 1802; by whom also a number of names are mentioned, which shew he came from Dar Fûr. your's faithfully,
W. G. BROWNE.
