. OUR RELATIONS 'AT HOME: 59, 



cultivated with dhurra, cotton, indigo, tobacco, onions,, 

 and probably other crops that we did not notice. Dome 

 palms and/asclepias are very numerous, the latter being, (r 

 a tree that exudes, according to Sir Samuel Baker, a 

 milky juice, poisonous to all animals but goats, and it 

 certainly is surprising to see the quantity that will now 

 exude from a broken branch or leaf. It is now in 

 blossom, and has a pale purple but not pretty flower, 

 and there are also suspended from it numerous huge 

 thin green capsules, some of them as large as a cocoa- 

 nut, and inside these there is a mass of seeds packed 

 closely together, and having long silky filaments at one 

 end. The fibre of the tree is valued by the natives for 

 making fine and strong ropes. Passing by the side of the 

 mountain, as we turned southwards we saw a family of 

 dog-faced baboons, playing about amongst the loose 

 rocks close to us, and taking much less heed of us than 

 we naturally did of them. So far as we are concerned 

 this species of animal will not suffer from our invasion 

 of their territory, for we have no intention of adding 

 them to our game list. A little later we saw in every 

 direction hundreds of guinea-fowl, and they kindly 

 allowed us to thin their numbers to the extent we re-_J 

 quired, without much labour in stalking. 



On arriving at ' Hel-el-Shereef ' we were received 

 by the Sheik, and several angareps were at once brought 

 from the houses for our use. They certainly make very 



