236 GONDOKORO TO AGARU.

character of the inhabitants, the slave-trade could not be carried on here. Chief Maye, an old man, is still the nominal ruler of this country. He devotes himself, however, mostly to rainmaking, whilst the real government rests in the hands of his eldest son, a bright young man, who speaks Arabic fluently, and who is in dress and manners the exact copy of a Khartim dandy. Our military station is close to Khor Koz, which here runs from south to north. The khor now contains good water to the depth of three and a half to four feet, which has formed wide sandbanks wherever possible. Fragments of granite and quartz, felspar, and mica are found there. From the thick belt of trees and underwood resounds the song of the Aédon, and the strange bleating and cackling of Schizorhis lewcogastra, such as we had heard in Loronio from their relations, Schizorhis zonura. They are strange, noisy fellows, now barking like a dog, now cackling hke a hen, now bleating like a sheep, especially when five or six of them are chasing one another round the acacia and tamarind trees, wagging their long flexible tails up and down.

The acacia wood affords good tannin for curing skins, which process the Lattika turn to good account in preparing the small leather aprons so much worn by the fair sex. The soil, though swampy in places, is very superior. It consists of a soft yellow clay, mixed in many places with sand, and in other parts of a very black vegetable mould. Its cultivation is very easy, nothing more than the scratching up of the surface to a depth of four or five inches, as neither stones nor luxuriant vegetation afford any obstacle. Red durrah, a little sesame, and a great deal of dukhn (Penicillaria), are grown. Sweet potatoes, bananas, as also ground-nuts, were first introduced by our soldiers. Numerous herds of cattle and very superior goats and sheep pasture here, as Chief Maye has known how to protect them from the Danagla’s love of plunder. The natives live about half a mile from the military station, in two large, well-built, but very dirty villages, full of watchtowers, dogs, women smoking tobacco, &c.

The Latuka are a peculiar race of men, quite distinct from all other Negroes about here. Of slight, ieee elegant figure, with a medium height of five feet ae inches Orem: of twenty