One of the chief impediments to ethnological study in Africa, south of Egypt and the northern coast belt of the continent, lies in the meagre amount of archaelogical data which exists, as also in the paucity of records which can be called historical. The position as regards these matters, however, is not as bad in the Sudan belt as is sometimes thought. The historical data collected by Barth and other writers concerning the Sudan belt in past ages, have been perhaps too readily considered as of doubtful authenticity. Consequently, any surviving direct evidence concerning Sudanese history and chronological data to fix it, is valuable not only in itself, but as helping to substantiate other traditions and notices which may not be considered to be fully authenticated.