260 NORTH-EAST AFEICA. 



causing residence in Kordofân to be very dangerous to Arabs, Turks, and Europeans, 

 who often fall victims to the endemic fevers. Towards the end of September, after 

 three or four months of intermittent rains, the wind changes. The north-east trade 

 winds, deflected south by the progress pf the sun towards the tropic of Capricorn, 

 now sets in, bringing cold weather in its train ; during the night the temperature 

 occasionally falls to 59° F. 



Flora. 



The flora of Kordofân is not very rich ; acacias, tamarisks, baobabs, and such- 

 like trees give the landscape its characteristic appearance in the regions which are 

 not barren or completely deforested. The acacias, which furnish the gum of com- 

 merce, belong to various species. The grey-barked variety, which yields the best 

 quality of gum, is scattered in numerous thickets throughout the eastern part of 

 the country. In the southern region the red-barked acacias, which furnish the 

 least valuable kind of gum, extend in vast forests almost useless from an economi- 

 cal point of view ; very few villagers or nomads take the trouble to collect the 

 gum which exudes from these trees. The most important harvest throughout 

 nearly the whole of Kordofân, is that of the dokhn (^penidlaria typho'icles), which 

 arrives at maturity four months after being sown, a period corresponding to the 

 kharif. This variety of millet requires so little moisture that it thrives better on 

 the sandy dunes than in the hollows ; nine-tenths of the population live on this 

 dokhn. The durrah, or Egyptian millet, is cultivated only in the well-watered 

 mountain valleys. Wheat, sesame, haricots, tobacco, and cotton are found in a 

 few districts near the capital. Hemp is used for interlacing the walls of the huts. 



Of all the vegetable products of Kordofân, gum is exported in the largest 

 quantities ; the chase also contributes to the movement of the exchanges more 

 than cattle-breeding. Ostrich feathers are the most valuable articles that the 

 northern caravans obtain from the natives. But these latter have almost 

 exterminated the ostrich in the eastern plains of the country ; herds of ostriches 

 are now met with only to the west of the Kaja Mountains, and the frontier of 

 Dar-For. The steppes of Kordofân would be admirably adapted for ostrich farms ; 

 but at present this bird is not kept in captivity, and the himters kill it to such an 

 extent that it is yearly diminishing in numbers. 



The ibis is very common in Kordofân, as many as fifty nests being found on 

 one tree; this bird like the stork, is considered sacred, and the natives do not 

 permit strangers to kill it. The people of Kordofân have a few domestic animals, 

 such as horses, asses, goats, and sheep ; but the pack-animals belong more especially 

 to the nomad tribes. To the south the Baggâras possess at least one hundred 

 thousand humped oxen, trained to bear burdens, but quite useless for field opera- 

 tions ; the cows supply but little milk. The scarcity of water in the plains has 

 modified the habits of the native breed of cattle, which come to the troughs only 

 every two or three days. Camels thrive only in northern Kordofân, amongst the 

 iKababish nomads ; south of the thirteenth degree of latitude they perish under the 

 attacks of swarms of gadflies and other venomous insects. 



