292 COMMERCE.

quills of large birds of prey, and is generally preferred to that in rings, which the natives have already began to adulterate. The greatest quantity of this metal is brought from the neighbourhood of Shabun, and from other southern provinces.

Horned cattle forms one of the chief exports, and is transported by the government to Egypt in large droves, of which more than the half perish on the road from want of proper care. Private individuals cannot engage in this speculation, for it would be injudicious to transport large herds, like those of the government, because attended with enormous expense, as it would require magazines to be erected at each day's march between Debba and Cairo.

Smaller droves are forwarded to Sennaar and Dongola by private parties. The government have even given up their large transports to Cairo.

Camels are also exported to Cairo, because the price of these animals is very low in Kordofan.

The chief trade, before all the articles enumerated, is, unfortunately, in slaves. The government and the Djelabi emulate each other in doing all in their power to gain possession of these unhappy beings by every possible method. The former, who are wholesale dealers, resort to the most cruel practices to seize upon slaves in large bodies ;* whilst the Djelabi imitate them on a smaller scale, and consider every species of cunning and deception fair, where the object is to gain possession of these poor * Vide the following chapters.