442 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



country, but the waters remained upward of a month in Taka, and 

 on subsiding left a thick slime or mud upon the surface. Imme- 

 diately after the inundation was imbibed the Bedawin sowed their 

 seed upon the mud, without any previous preparation whatever. 

 The inundation was usually accompanied by heavy rains, which set 

 in a short time before the inundation, and became most copious dur- 

 ing its height. The rains lasted some weeks longer than the inun- 

 dation; they were not incessant, but fell in heavy showers at short 

 intervals. In the winter and spring the people of Taka obtained their 

 water from deep wells, extremely copious, dispersed all over the coun- 

 try, but at a considerable distance from each other. The people ap- 

 peared to be ignorant of tillage ; they had no regular fields, and the 

 millet, their only grain, was sown among thorny trees. After the 

 harvest was gathered the peasants returned to their pastoral occupa- 

 tions. When Burckhardt visited this region in the hottest part of the 

 year, just before the period of the rains, the ground was quite parched 

 up, and he saw but few cattle; the herds were sent to the Eastern 

 Desert, where they fed in the mountains and fertile valleys, and 

 where springs of water were found. After the inundation they were 

 brougiit back to the plain. The quantity of cattle, Burckhardt be- 

 lieved, would have been greater than it was had it not been for the 

 wild beasts which inhabited the district and destroyed great num- 

 bers of them. The most common of these wild animals were the lion 

 and the leopard. The flocks of the encampment were driven in the 

 evening into the area within the circle of tents, which were them- 

 selves surrounded by a thorny inclosure. Great numbers of asses 

 were kept by all these Bedawin. They also possessed many camels. 

 The trees are described as being full of pigeons. The Hadendoa 

 were the only inhabitants of Taka seen by Burckhardt. Each tribe 

 had a couple of large villages built in the desert on the border of the 

 cultivable soil, where some inhabitants were always to be found, and 

 to which the population, excef)ting those who tended the cattle in the 

 interior of the desert, repaired during the rainy season. After the 

 waters had subsided they spread over the whole district, pitching their 

 camps in those places where they hoped for the best pasturage, and 

 moved about from month to month, until the sun parched up the 

 herbage. The settlers in the villages meantime sowed the ground 

 adjoining the neighboring desert. The camps consisted of huts 

 formed of mats; there were also a few huts with walls, resembling 

 those in the countries of the Nile, but smaller. Even the settlers, 

 however, preferred living in the open under sheds to inhabiting these 

 close dwellings. 



It has often been stated that civilization in Egypt spread from 

 the south, and considerable stress has been laid upon the fact that so 

 many predynastic and early dynastic remains have been found in 



