THE SOFT. 327 4 grass. The women are very ugly, and disfigure their lips by the insertion of wooden discs or cones of quartz. Very delicately made iron chains are much worn, and a curious product of this country is seen in the pipe-bowls made out of red clay in exact imitation of Egyptian patterns, which have been introduced here from Khartum. A yellow clay found here is eaten; it is said to aid the digestion of fish, and also to take away the smell of fish from the hands. The Dinka use the strongly aromatic leaves and flowers of the Hyptis spicigera for this latter purpose.

A damp grass steppe, strewn with many masses of gneiss, between which doléb bushes grow, led by a gentle fall from Mvolo to the river; after the rapids the latter passes into the lower plain, to which the cataracts serve as steps. Whilst near the station the Yalo flows due north, at the ford we crossed it makes a bend to the west-north-west, and there it was one hundred and thirty-four feet broad and thirty inches deep. The bed was sandy, and bordered on each side by enormous growths of grass. ‘T'o the left of the road we followed after fording the river, we came upon many old channels, which were frequented by hippopotami, whilst herons and Sarciophori were busily engaged in catching worms on the muddy banks. Amongst the dokhn-fields and steppe-wood, in which patches of red sand were strewn with gneiss rubble, there were frequent strips of swamp nearly always formed by small khors, which were very difficult to cross. The whole of this small district, which is named Dugwara, or Dugbara, belongs to Chief Agai. His village was just being removed farther to the south. A group of Anogeissus and Solanacez, in the middle of the savannah which adjoins this village, marks the place where the village of Ruku was once situated. We were joined here by the two sons of the late chief, A-uri, armed with large wooden clubs and broad-bladed buffalo spears; they had full beards and very beautifully made iron bracelets. It is curious that all the people here chew tobacco.

At. Ruku we entered into the Sofi district, where the language differs considerably from the Lési idiom, but is identical with the language spoken in Béli, to which I shall subsequently refer. The country had here a very wintry aspect; in many