152 TRIBES BORDERING ON KORDOFAN, fested neighbourhoods. Their chief wealth consists in ivory, which they likewise obtain in certain parts of their dominions without the slightest trouble. They arrange the teeth in rows, forming a fence round their huts, and barter them away to the Djelabi when they come into their parts.

There are many elephants in the country wandering about in herds of several hundreds each ; they are, however, met with singly, during the greater portion of the year. It is only at a certain period—generally before the rain sets in—that they collect together in herds, and then they cross the White Nile in the direction of Fazoglo. An old female elephant is always the leader, and determines on the spot for crossing the stream. This movement is effected with a fearful noise, as may be easily imagined when so large a number of these moving mountains are knoMn to be swimming in the river at the same time. They draw up a quantity of water in their proboscis, and spurt it forth again like a fountain, thus appearing to convert a large extent of the water in which they carry on their pranks into a sort of whirlpool. Notwithstanding their immense weight they swim with incredible facility, and I have been assured that when these animals cross the river singly, the water remains frequently undisturbed, so that the unwieldy mass appears to be moved by some invisible power.

Whilst on their journey, the emigrants observe the strictest order ; their leader, a female, turns