KOEDOFAX DESCRIBED. 301 sary until harvest. The grain is often merely roasted, and, on the march, eaten without further preparation. In villages it is usually ground between two stones, mixed with a little water, and baked in very thin cakes, which generally contain a good deal of sand.

Sem-sem, tobacco, and cotton are all cultivated, but only in small quantities, except at Bara, where plenty of water can be obtained near the surface ; as a result the people have large gardens, and are enabled to cultivate the usual Arab vegetables to a considerable extent.

I must mention one tree, the baobab (Adansonia digitata), which is a great boon to the natives who live in this district. The first we saw was at Kalaka ; the northern limit is a few miles north of Obeid.

Its native name is " hamra." The tree is usually seventy or eighty feet high, and the trunk from thirty to forty feet in circumference ; the branches are short, thick, and unsightly ; while the leaves are large and broad, like the svcamore-leaf. The fruit is eio:ht or ten inches long, and has a hard but brittle shell, containing many small seeds and a fibrous pulp, which has a slightly acid taste. The tree is most valuable, for, in addition to its fruit, its hollow trunk serves as a reservoir for water, many of the trees being capable of holding as much as 20,000 gallons.

During the rains, the people fill up the trunk with water, which is thus preserved for use in the dry