254 FADIBEK TO LABORE.

dominance of girls in all the villages about here was very striking; I had already noticed it in Fajuli. From Madi, we had to diverge from our last year’s road and take a path which led across the two small khors of Okora and Faggara, both of them full of water, and then reached another khor, by which the station of Farajok is situated. ‘The march was almost barren of topographical results, for clouds completely veiled the mountain chain running along on our right, and only the solitary groups of the Lalak, Agegu, and the smaller Akuero, lying in front of the chain, were momentarily visible now and then. A wide rolling plain, with luxuriant grass and very little timber, stretched out before us to the west and north-west, and wherever depressions existed there were muddy ponds or immense reed thickets, from which Centropus monachus could be heard, while a species of weaver-bird (Luplectes franciscanus) and the widow-bird (Penthetria macroura) climbed about the stems. Shortly before reaching the village of Miri, the road entered durrah-fields, which covered the hillsides, enclosing small villages, and it then descended to Khor Limur, a clear stream flowing over granite slabs. The little station of Farajok is picturesquely situated on its northern bank. It was erected to protect the road from Fadibék to Labore, which here branches off from the Obbo road.

We passed through Yuaia, and halted at a little place called Latinoto, where dome-shaped rocks afforded a good view over the country. Since leaving Madi, we had been continually marching through durrah-fields. The Shuli only eat red durrah in cases of necessity, when, for instance, the eleusine crop fails; as a rule, they employ it only for brewing beer, so that the consumption of the latter article must be very considerable. ‘The long mountain chain named Lobull, running up from the south, is ten to fourteen miles distant, to the right of our road; it must be about 3000 feet high, while its principal summit, Lumoga, probably attains to 4000 feet. Whether this is the “ Madi Peak” of the maps I cannot say, but I know that no peak exists in the Madi district, and Jebel Lumoga, in the Shuli district, is not, properly speaking, a “peak.” The traveller soon finds out how thoroughly defective are the few existing maps of this country.