Bertat
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The Bertat (Arabic Jebalain) are one of the Shanqella group of tribes living in Ethiopia. They are mainly agriculturists, and occupy the valleys of the Yabus and Tuma tributaries of the Blue Nile.
The Bertat are shortish and very black, with projecting jaws, broad noses and thick lips. By both sexes the hair is worn short or the head shaved; on cheeks and temple are tribal marks in the form of scars. The huts of the Bertat are circular, the floor raised on short poles. Their weapons are the spear, throwing-club, sword and dagger, and also the kulbeda or thro wing-knife. Blocks of salt are the favorite form of currency. Gold washing is practised. Nature worship still struggles against the spread of Mahommedanism.
The Bertat, estimated to number some 80,000, around 1880, were nearly exterminated during the period of Dervish ascendancy (1884-1898) in the eastern Sudan. Settled among them are Arab communities governed by their own sheiks, while the meks or rulers of the Bertat speak Arabic, and show traces of foreign blood.
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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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