CAPITAL OF KORDOFAN; LOBEID. 263 voured in the morning by the dogs, two or more of which may not unfrequently be seen fighting over a human arm or foot. The hyaenas are really in some respects a blessing to these countries, they are, in fact, the scavengers, consume all the dead bodies and garbage, and thus prevent the air from being poisoned with miasmata and nauseous vapours. A fallen animal is treated in the same manner as a dead slave; it is thrown on to the neighbours' territory, and is likewise devoured in the night by the beasts of prey ; whilst the remainder is enjoyed during the day by the hungry dogs, in company with greedy vultures, eagles, and other rapacious birds. The places of sepulture are not held sacred by these unin\'ited guests ; for the dead bodies being generally very superficially covered over with earth, they are disinterred at night by the hyaenas and ravenous dogs, and totally consumed, or the remains are left exposed in the high roads.

Lobeid counts five mosques, only one of which is a brick building. This is situated in the quarter of Wady-Naghele ; it is quite a plain edifice, without that decoration so generally observed about the places of worship in Egypt. All the other public buildings, as also the houses belonging to the chief Turks, are simple huts of clay, differing from the others merely in their internal arrangements, which consist, however, only in the construction of a few divans. There are three barracks at Lobeid, constituted by a series of straw-huts, likewise about fifty in number, which