I. 4. XXII. THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFCR hi

because more segregated, have deteriorated less than their brethren

in the more accessible regions. The account given of the lakes of

Deri'ba^ is also of interest.

It was not until we had risen to some 1700 feet above the plain that we encountered any signs of present day occupation: here the nature ot the country changes, numerous rock plants, bracken and short mountain

grass making their appearance with villages, areas of wheat cultivation and tomato and onion patches ; the latter being irrigated by the natives by means

of the many small running streams with which the Jebel abounds. The two lakes at Deriba...lie,.at an altitude of 1700 feet above the plain and 4704 feet above sea level, in the arena of what may best be described as

a vast amphitheatre, from three to four miles in diameter, formed by a continuous circular (or slightly oval) range of steeply-sloping heights, varying from about 800 to 2000 feet above the surface of the lakes^.

The salt lake (termed by the natives the "female"), which is the larger of the two, occupies the north-east corner of the amphitheatre. It measures approximately 1050 yards in length, 1350 in breadth, and about 3^^ miles

in circumference. The water is very salt, dirty, and greenish in colour and has an unpleasant acrid smell. There is a heavy deposit of salt all round the perimeter of the lake clearly defining its high-water mark. Except at the northern end, the banks shelve very gradually into soft, oozing, strongly smelUng mud.... It would appear that the lake is of no great depth, except possibly at its extreme northern end

The second lake (the "male") lies about f mile to the south-west of the salt lake and contains more or less fresh water. It is approximately

1550 yards long, 900 broad, with a circumference of about 2 miles. It forms the centre of a large crater, undoubtedly volcanic in origin, the

sides of which rise almost perpendicularly out of the water to heights varying from about 400 to 700 feet....The water, like that of the salt lake,

is greenish in colour, but clean and clear, and smells and tastes slightly of sulphur. .. .The banks shelve very abruptly and the lake appears to be of great depth....This lake is regarded with much superstition and fear by the inhabitants of Jebel Marra, to whom its mystic properties are well known.,,,The Furs of the Jebel say it is haunted, regard it as an oracle, and ask it questions, the answers to which they deduct from the various colours which the waters of the lake assume in the early morning or late afternoon when there is considerable reflection, or when the surface of the water is ruffled by the wind,,..There is no outlet of any kind from

either of these lakes, unless it be a subterranean one. They are fed by numerous khors from the surrounding mountains,...

The Fur build quite good "tukls," or circular huts, with walls of loose stone and roofs well thatched with grass. The villages are in every case surrounded by loose stone walls of considerable strength and thickness,

about six feet high and usually topped with a breastwork of faggots. These

^ The "See Daribe" of Nachtigal's map of Wadai and Darfur (Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1875),

^ All these heights have since been found to be very considerably under- estimated. The peaks are quite 10,000 feet above sea-level.