284 COMMERCE.

accurate information concerning this article of commerce, and I think that my experience will prove of sufficient interest to entitle me to give it at length. Mehemed Ali monopolizes the trade in ivory, and thinks that he receives all the ivory imported into his states from the centre of Africa ; but he is very much mistaken in this respect, for only that brought by the caravans from Darfour, vhich usually reach Siut, in Upper Egypt, in the months of February and March, is sold to the Viceroy, and this merely from necessity, in order to enable the vendor to purchase other articles with the net proceeds. In Kordofan, the very centre of the ivory trade, he has thrown the trade open, but at the same time very cunningly calculated that it must eventually come into his hands, for, after the djelabi (merchants) have bought the ivory in Kordofan, and defrayed all the expenses of its transport to Cairo, he is the first to make them an offer for their stock, and, indeed, at so low a price that they can hardly gain a small interest on the capital laid out; hence very little ivory is brought to him now-a-days through that source.

Darfour, which receives ivory from its tributary provinces, Runga, Kulla, Shala, Binga, Gimir, Sachana, Yambusa, Dama, etc., as contribution, sells it in the country to the merchants of Kobbe and El-Fasher. That which is collected at Pergu, Bachermi, Kugo, and Niro, is annually forwarded to Tripoli. The market price at Kobbe and El-Fasher, where large stores are always kept, is 3. 2s. 6d.