190 Darfiir.

Cotton.

Salt. Camels.

Cattle Sheep.

Goats. Honea.

The northern part of the country is almost uncultivated ; and in the west, agriculture is pretty much the same as described for the eastern portion, except that owing to the greater quantity of water, more vegetables are grown.

The central mountainous district is the best watered and richest, and accordingly the most thickly populated. Small terraces, upon which gardens are laid out, are constructed all over the slopes of the hills. Here barley, wheat, dukhn,* dura, simsim. pumpkins, and melons are grown. In the small water-courses, onions are planted during the dry season. Honey of very good quality is collected in Jebel Marra.

The cotton grown formerly was excellent. Now very little is grown. Arabs manufacture from wool a coarse material, but the Fors are ignorant of the process of its manufacture.

The production of salt is carried on in many parts of Darfur.

Camel breeding is the principal pursuit of the Arabs in the north and east of Darfur. North of 14° lat. camels used to be very numerous ; they are now comparatively scarce. The Zeiadia, Maharia, and Bedaiat are the principal breeders.

The Arabs who breed camels occupy themselves with no other industry, and have even to buy the corn used in their households, which, with camel's milk, satisfies all their wants.

In the south, among the sedentary inhabitants, cattle and sheep are to be found in abundance. The cattle are of two kinds : the humped species and the so-called African species, with long horns. The former are compact, well-made animals, and become very fat ; the others are not worth much.

The sheep have but little wool, but their flesh is good ; among the Zaghawa there is a species with long curly hair.

Zaghawa is leased to the present sultan's sister, Miriam Tajer. Goats abound everywhere. The Baggara Arabs confine themselves chiefly to breeding cattle and horses. The Messeria are large horseowners.

Horse breeding is largely carried on by the Mahamid tribe. The horses are small in size but very strong, and are said to be able on an emergency to travel for 60 hours without water. They are chiefly of a local breed (Tama).

The sultan has a stud farm in the Zeiadia country, with the object of improving and reviving the breed of horses.

Toions.

El Fasher. The old capital was Kobe, but at the end of the 17th century it was moved to El Fasher which is now the chief town. Colonel Gordon in 1877 described it as a most miserable place, though once a populous and thriving town under the sultans. It is 388 miles by road from El Obeid, or about 650 miles from Khartoum, and about 300 miles nearly due east from Abesher.

El Fasher or Tendelti stands mostly on the western bank of the Wadi Tendelti or Dindil in an angle formed by the junction of the latter with the Wadi El Ko.

The Tendelti has no current of its own, but is filled during the rains by the overflow from the Ko, and a dam, constructed near the junction, retains the water for some time. The wells supplying the town are all sunk in its bed.

The town now consists almost entirely of tukls and box-shaped straw sheds. There are about five or six mud houses, and the sultan intends to build himself a palace, the plans and material for which have been already sent to him from Khartoum.

On the town side, opposite the old palace, the old Government constructed a square fort with ditch and parapet. This is now demolished.

The population of the town was, in 1875, about 2,650. Of these — 1,700 were natives, 300 Zeiadia Arabs, 250 Sabah Arabs, 400 Melha Arabs. The population is now estimated at about 10,000. Dara. There are now no other towns of importance. Dara, which used to be second in importance to Fasher, and the headquarters of a mudiria, is merely a small tukl village. Melit Melit is the name of rather a populous district in the north. Here there is a plentiful water supply from wells 9 to ] 2 feet deep in a khor, which also contains many date trees. Tura. The ancient burial place of the sultans is at Tura in Jebel Marra.

♦ The dukha is ready for harvesting 90 days after sowing.