A WELL-CULTIVATED COUNTRY. 233 oil which is obtained from it, for any other purpose than that of anointing the body. The people believe, of course incorrectly, that the oil of the ground-nuts would be injurious to eat, but that the sesame-oil is wholesome. All our porters carried with them packets of ground-nuts neatly wrapped in leaves.

After marching an hour and a half from Ayak, we arrived at the ford of the river, which flowed between steep sandy banks about ten feet high; it was sixty-five feet broad, and from three to five feet deep. The river is bordered by very uneven ground, with deep swampy places full of water and mud. It took us half an hour to pass through this, after which we came to a small patch of short grass, followed by: extensive fields of durrah and dokhn, alternating with grass steppe. The district on the other side of the river is called, like the principal village, Ferial, but a river Ferial or Welle does not exist here. If one may judge from the extensive cultivation, the number of people we met on the well-trodden paths, and the numerous zeribas, this country is very thickly populated, and is exceedingly productive in corn, sesame, and tobacco. The mashirr of Ayak (Nicotiana rustica), as well as very large gourds which are used for jars, are much sought after and prized throughout the whole district of the Bahr-el-Jebel. In the corn-fields surrounding the village of Malék, which we left to our right, were a number of quails with their young, probably the Coturmix Delegorgquet, for the C. communis, which is very rare here, would certainly have no young at this time. Just behind the village lay the swamp of Warrafan, which is never dry.

After a four hours’ march, we rested under a group of buttertrees, which provided us with shade from the burning sun, and where we received presents of water from the Agar chiefs living in the neighbourhood. From this place a long march through corn-fields, villages, and patches of ground scorched by the sun, led to the wells of Miénval, which were in the middle of thé road ; they were about ten feet deep, in thick, ight grey loam, and contained very dirty water of a milky colour. With a little trouble, however, it would be possible, by deepening the wells, to get better water, and that this is not done shows