264 CAPITAL OF kordofan; lobeid.

are enclosed by a fence, furnished with an entrance, the gate of which is represented by a large branch of a tree. The hospital, that terror of all the soldiery, is also erected of clay. One of the largest buildings in Lobeid is the governor's residence. It is distinguished from the other houses only by its magnitude, and a rather more comfortable arrangement of its interior, for in construction it resembles all the other buildings. There is, in fact, no choice of material ; thus the palaces of the great, and the hovels of the lower orders, are raised of clay, and their outer walls covered with a coating of cow-dung. Besides a large saloon and court, the government-house has an orangery. In the court, at the back of the house, the divan, or chamber of audience, is situated, where public business is transacted, and the visits are received of foreigners and natives, as also of all subordinates, who, according to Eastern custom, are obliged to do honour to the governor periodically. To the left of this saloon is the lesser divan, as it is called, in which a captain disposes of the less important matters, or arranges disputes, and other trifling affairs, that the governor may not be unnecessarily troubled. The scriptoria of the Coptic secretaries, met with in all Mehemed All's divans are situate on the left of the court. During my residence in Kordofan, Mahommed Bey, colonel of the first regiment of the line, was at the same time civil and military governor of the province. This man, a Circassian