X8A Kordofan aiul'Par/ur. Healtli. Most diseases in Kordofan may be included under one of two heads — malarial and venereal. Were it not for these classes of disease Kordofan might be considered a healthy country.

Malaria. — The fever is, perhaps, more often of the remittent type. Those attacked for the first time almost invariably have remittent fever ; the subsequent attacks are either remittent or intermittent. During January and February, which are otherwise healthy months, a particularly sudden and severe type of remittent fever has been noticed. A patient, previously well, will lose consciousness in the course of an hour, and either die in a state of coma or only recover after weeks of convalescence. This apparently is the result of malaria contracted during the rains, as EgjTitian and British officers who have spent a wet season here and afterwards left the district, have been attacked in this way whilst on leave in Cairo and England. The good effect of hypodermic injections of hydro-bromide of quinine in fever of this kind is worth recording.

Venereal Diseases of every kind rage, except in Dar Nulia, where the people make great efforts to prevent the spread of these diseases. Travellers should take precautions to prevent their guides and servants drinking out of their water-bottles.

Water-borne Diseases. — Of diseases traceable to an impure water supply there has been a remarkable freedom in El Obeid itself. In this garrison there have been only a few cases of dysentery and diarrhcea during the last three years. Amongst the inhabitants of the country further south, who derive their water supply from rain water collected in hollows during the rainy season or from shallow wells during the dry season, this is not always the case, as many cases of dysentery, tape worm, guinea worm (very prevalent), etc., coming from these parts testify.

Guinea Worm. — With regard to the guinea worm, there is not sufficient evidence to prove that it is contracted by washing or wading in water, as the natives state. It in all probability is taken into the system with drinking water. To avoid this pest all surface water or water that is likely to have been fouled by the natives wading in it (for the ova are introduced into the water in this way) should be boiled before being drunk.

Small-Pox is still common in the southern part of the district, and the faces of many of the inhabitants are scarred in consequence.

Pneumonia is common amongst the blacks during the cold weather, and a great many camels die from this disease.

Section 2. — Darfur.

HiBtoricaL* Darfur was formerly one of the line of ancient African Kingdoms stretching across the Continent from west to east, of which Wadai and Abyssinia are the only ones still surviving as independent states. Up to the early part of the 18th century the Kings of Darfur had dominion over the country as far east as the Atbara ; but the war-like Fungj, who at that time were one of the most powerful tribes of the Sudan, gradually drove the Darfurians back, and established their own authority on the banks of the White Nile. Vide p. 229.

In 1770 they wrested the Province of Kordofan from the Darfur kings, but five years later it was retaken by the latter, and remained under their control until conquered in 1822 by Mohammed Bey Dafterdar, the brother-in-law of Ismail Pasha, who was burnt at Shendi.

After the loss of Kordofan the Darfurians retired westwards and the kings then governed only a circumscribed area, of which Jebel Marra was the centre. This is the Darfur that was conquered and annexed to Egypt by Zubeir Pasha in 1874 and which is the Darfur of the present day.

Modern Darfur in shape is a more or less regular parallelogram, 400 miles by 400 miles, and may be said to lie between N. Lat. 10° and 16° and E. Long. 22° and 27° 30'.

It is bounded on the north by Dar Bedaiat and the desert west of the Wadi Melh ; on the east by Kordofan, J the frontier running from Kaja Serrug (Darfur) in a south-west direction to Dam Jamad (Kordofan) and thence in a southerly direction to the Bahr El Arab and Dar Fertit ; Dar Habbania and Dar Taaisha belonging to Darfur. The western boundary leaves Dar Sula and Borgu or Wadai within the French sphere of influence and Dar Gimr and Dar Tama to Darfur. Drainage. The watershed of Darfur, which forms part of that separating the basin of Lake Chad from that of the Nile, runs nearly north and south through the centre of the country. The chief features which define it are in the North Jebel Meidob (3,500 feet) connected with Jebel Tagabo further south by a plateau, the greatest altitude of which is about 1.200 feet, and further south Jebel Marra and its offshoots. To the south-west of these mountains, the main peaks of which rise to an altitude of some 6,000 feet, the plain is about 4,000 feet above the sea.

* ('hiefly from " Fire and Sword in the Sudan." t It was rumoured at Oradurman (May, 1904) tliat Abesher, the capital of Wadai, was occupied by the French on the 20th December, 1903. This rumour, however, appears to be unfounded. X For detail of frontier, vide App. G, p. 337.

Present bonudaries.