BERTAT (Arab. Jebalain)  , negroes of the Shangalla group of tribes, mainly agriculturists . They occupy the valleys of the Yabus and Tumat, tributaries of the Blue Nile . They 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 orthrowing-knife . Blocks of salt are the favourite form of currency . Gold washing is practised . Nature worship still struggles against the spread of Mahommedanism . The Bertat, estimated to number some 8o,000, c . 188o, 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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FAZOGLI.) See Koeltlitz, " The Bertat," Journal of theAnthroological Institute, xxxiii . 51 ; Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905) .