266 LABORE TO FATIKO.

furnishes abundance of long switches and branches, which, driven into the ground in a circle, are arched over and bound together with bast; thus a framework is formed resembling a hencoop, and is strengthened by hoops or switches tied round it, and thatched with grass held in place by strips of bast and thin switches. <A shelter is thus formed which is large enough to contain an ankareb, a few boxes, a table, and a chair, and which resists the rain and storm better than a tent. One hour is quite sufficient for a few men to construct a comfortable hut.

The village of Fanto is inhabited by Shuli, but the huts are hke those of the Madi, and do not resemble the Shuli dwellings farther north, which are built lke Shiluk huts. Hach hut has a small, carefully fenced tobacco plantation (Nicotiana rustica), beside which lie heaps of ashes for strewing over the plants and the soil, as a protection against insects. Small calabashes are grown, and Helmia bulbifera, which, however, is more common in the Madi than in the Shuli districts. Only the round subterranean bulbs are eaten, and when I gathered some of the aerial bulbs I was strongly urged to leave them alone, the men saying that they would kill me. Red durrah, sesame, eleusine, and a little dukhn (Penictllaria) are the chief articles of food; but throughout the Shuli country eleusine corn is preferred for eating, while red durrah is used for brewing, and eaten only in times of need. Whenever the eleusine crop fails, as it partially did this year, the people everywhere complain of hunger, although there is abundance of red durrah. Besides these cereals, there are numerous plants of which the seeds or leaves are eaten as vegetables. ‘Two sorts of cucumber, two of hibiscus, one of them (Hibiscus cannabina) used for making packthread, the other grown for its seeds, and a species of Kchinops, from which salt is made, are cultivated everywhere. Kach hut contains large water-jars and small cooking vessels of clay, of the usual shapes. Here, as elsewhere, the pottery is made by women, and it is only south of 2° N. lat. that this work devolves upon the men, Hvery woman lives with her children in a hut of her own, and has her own granary. In front of each dwelling there usually stands a ‘miniature hut, containing some corn, small bones, &c., and near it a kind of miniature sleeping-bench is placed, and is looked upon as a