318 BITI TO BUFL perfect thickets were formed by a species of Zizyphus with inedible fruits (called by the Dinka langa-konn, 1.e., elephantzizyphus), together with Randia, which is known as dar.

After a good three hours’ march, we halted on one of the rocky ridges just mentioned, from which I managed to take some compass bearings. In some small water-puddles lying in rocky hollows I saw flowering water-lilies, which, not requiring much moisture, are apparently capable of surviving a period of drought. ‘Their seed, called deshinin in Egypt, and sittéb in the Sudan, is converted into flour.

The scenery undergoes a change here, for a real grass steppe, with isolated trees, replaces the woods, and the sandy soil favours the growth of euphorbia. Rocky domes and ridges abound here likewise, and from one of the summits we saw Jebel Yere in frontof us. It was rather higher than the surrounding domes, near one of which we were to camp for the night. Khor Kokobere, containing a good quantity of water, flowed along its base, bounded by masses of gneiss. Jebel Yere presents a flat back, and yields a splendid view over rolling, well-wooded, and, to judge by the numerous pillars of smoke, well-populated country. ‘Towards the north and east no elevation could be seen ; in the west it rained, but in the south and south-west many peaks and mountains that I had previously noticed and marked down were visible. The broad river, now seen for the first time in front of us, is about a quarter or half an hour from the mountain, and flows from south-west to north-north-east.

Jebel Yere is famous on account of its large caverns, in which the natives took refuge, with their herds and corn, when their country was occupied, and where they for a very long time resisted their conquerors. In one of the caverns there is said to be a very deep fissure, which reaches down to the water, and anything which falls down it comes out again by the river. An investigation of the caverns showed that the entrances had been very carefully blocked up with stones and thorns, to prevent the entrance of wild animals. I found an Entada, called kangba by the natives, growing here abundantly on the rocks ; it is eaten with relish after being peeled in hot water.

A second broad belt of gneiss reefs and ridges, from which large slabs may be lifted, extends beyond Jebel Yere. The