150 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



Soon after leaving Sennaar, he says, " We 

 " began to see the effects of the quantity of rain 

 " having failed. There was little corn sown, and 

 " that so late as to be scarcely above ground. It 

 " seems the rains begin later as they pass north- 

 " ward. Many people were here employed in 

 " gathering grass-seeds to make a very bad kind 

 " of bread. These people appear perfect skele- 

 " tons, and no wonder, as they live upon such 

 " fare. Nothing increases the danger of travel- 

 " ling and prejudice against strangers more, than 

 " the scarcity of provisions in the country through 

 " which you are to pass."* 



" Came to Eltic, a straggling village about half 

 " a mile from the Nile, in the north of a large 

 " bare plain; all pasture, except the banks of the 

 " river which are covered with wood. We now 

 " no longer saw any corn sown. The people 

 " here were at the same miserable employment 

 " as those we had seen before, that of gathering 

 " grass-seeds. "f 



Under such circumstances of climate and poli- 

 tical situation, though a greater degree of fore- 

 sight, industry and security, might considerably 

 better their condition and increase their popula- 

 tion, the birth of a greater number of children 

 without these concomitants would only aggravate 

 their misery, and leave their population where it 

 was. 



* Bruce, vol. iv. p. 5 1 1 . 

 t Id. p. 511. 



