Towns. 71 The standard white cloth is called a Tob, the blue cloth Farakhieh, and the smallest pieces of cloth Rubieh.

The following were the approximate prices in 1876 :— Prices. An ox costs 12s. to 24s. A sheep costs . . . . . . . . 3s. A goat costs . . . . . . . • 2s. A good riding camel costs . . . . £10 to £14 A pack ,, „ . . . . 5 „ 6 A horse costs ... . . . . . . 10 ,, 12 But sometimes a good horse fetches . . 60 „ 85 The slave trade was, before Gressi's campaign, one of the chief occupations of the inhabitants. Large expeditions used to proceed across the Bahr el Arab, returning with slaves and ivory.

Towns.

El Father is the chief town. Colonel Gordon in 1877 ElFasher.

described it as a most miserable place, though once a populous and thriving town under the Sultans.

El Fasher or Tendelty stands on the western bank of the Wadi Tendelty, in an angle formed by the junction of the latter with the Wadi el Kho.

The Tendelty has no current of its own, but is filled during the rains by the overflow from the Kho, and a dam, constructed near the junction, retains the water for some time. The wells supplying the town are all sunk in its bed.

The town consists almost entirely of tukls and boxshaped straw sheds. On the east of the Tendelty stand the palace of the late Sultan, a group of mud huts, and a few tukls surrounded by a mud wall about 20 feet high. On the town side opposite the palace, the Egyptians constructed a square fort with ditch and parapet.

The population of the town was, in 1875, about 2,650. Of these— 1,700 were natives. 300 Zayadiyeh Arabs. 250 Sabah Arabs. 400 Melhah Arabs.

Dara is the second town in Darfur. Mr. Wilson says Dara.

(in 1880) :—" It is well fortified by a stone wall, which has a tower at each corner : the walls are massiTe and