THE SOUDAN. 25

decorate themselves with necklaces of “ saumeet,” or pieces of agate an inch thick, with alternated colours of black, brown and white. They wear ear¬ rings and nose-rings of gold. Those in the ear weigh half an ounce each, and that in the nose is so large as to cover the mouth. It is worn on the right

side of the nose. When they cannot afford the gold rings they put a piece of coral through the nose. Not only are the neck, ears and nose ornamented, but the ankles also. Strings of glass beads, or filigree ornaments fastened with a silk tassel, generally red, above thick-soled brown leather sandals, adorn the feet of the Soudanese girls. The girls themselves are thus described in Petherick’s interesting book, Egypt

“ Their colour partakes of various shades, from light to brown, almost black ; and although they scarcely ever wash—using the “ dilka,” dough and

oil, instead of water—-their skin appears clean and fresh. The hair, which never reaches below the shoulders, and inclines to be woolly, is plaited into a variety of forms, but generally closely to the head, fitting like a skull-cap, and hanging down in thick masses of innumerable small plaits all round the side and back of the head. Another form is to plait the hair so as to adhere close to the top of the head, as in the former case, but the ends, instead of being plaited, are combed out and stiffened with a solution of grease, forming a thick bushy circle around the head. With this head-dress, as the lady only arranges her hair once or twice a month, she cannot recline upon a pillow, for which she is obliged to substitute a small wooden stool, hollowed out to fit the

neck, upon which she reposes.”

The houses of the people in the Soudan are as simple as their dress, and

more simple than their ornaments. They are built of suu-burnt bricks, plastered with a composition made of manure and grey sand. There is gener¬

ally only one large room in the house, which is used both for living and sleep¬ ing in, and a small one used as a lumber-room. Often there are no windows, but if there are any, they are placed in very high positions.

The children are never dressed until they are eight or nine years old, and they are very young when they are married. A mother carries her baby on her left hip : the baby is always naked, and sits astride.

The following extract from a letter from one of the Canadian Voyageurs,

descriptive of this region, will be read with interest:—

Merawi, 31st January, 1885.

I know not but I may have conveyed a wrong impression in some of my former letters respecting the fertility of the Soudan, which certainly improves vastly as we go south. The banks of the river from Abbafatma, where not

encroached on by the sterile desert, are very fertile.

B