Fung

Fung (Funj), an historical Negroid people of the Upper Nile basin, whose original seat was in the Abyssinian uplands south of Senaar and along the middle course of the White Nile. In the first half of the 16th century they entered on a career of conquest, and, after overrunning the surrounding plains, founded the kingdom of Senaar, and gradually reduced all the populations along the Nile valley as far north as Wady Haifa, near the Egyptian frontier. Their empire lasted for three centuries down to the year 1821, when it was overthrown and annexed to Egypt by Ismail Pasha in command of an expedition despatched by Mehemet Ali. The Fung still form the great bulk of the population, and are divided into several branches, such as the Fung-Berun, the Fung-Hammeg, the Fung-Gumuz, the Jebelavins (" Highlanders"), the Taklavins ("People of Takla"), the" Shilluks, Bertats, and Dinkas of the White Nile, all of whom claim kinship with this renowned race of conquerors. The Fung language has much in common with the Beja of Lower Nubia [Beja], and the Fungs themselves appear to have been originally akin to the Agao and other Hamitic aborigines of the Abyssinian plateau; but, through long contact with the Soudanese blacks, they have become largely assimilated in appearance to the Negro type. The nose, however, is straight, hair crisp but not woolly, while the colour varies from a deep, yellowish brown to a deep, bluish black, with very shiny skin, like that of the Nubians. (James Bruce, Travels; Tremaux, Le Soudan; Hartmann, Skizze der Landschaft Seandr, in Zeitschriftfiir Allgcmeins Erdkunde, vol. xiv.)