254 FADIBEK TO LABOUR 



dominance of girls in all the villages about here was very 

 striking ; I had already noticed it in Fajuli. 



From Madi, we had to diverge from our last year's road and 

 take a path which led across the two small Ichors of Okora and 

 Faggara, both of them full of water, and then reached another 

 JcJwr, by which the station of Farajok is situated. The march 

 was almost barren of topographical results, for clouds com- 

 pletely veiled the mountain chain running along on our right, 

 and only the solitary groups of the Lalak, Aggu, and the 

 smaller Akuero, lying in front of the chain, were momentarily 

 visible now and then. A wide rolling plain, with luxuriant 

 grass and very little timber, stretched out before us to the 

 west and north-west, and wherever depressions existed there 

 were muddy ponds or immense reed thickets, from which Cen- 

 trojpus monachus could be heard, while a species of weaver-bird 

 (Euplectes franciscanus) and the widow-bird (Pentketria ma- 

 croura) climbed about the stems. Shortly before reaching the 

 village of Miri, the road entered durrah-fields, which covered 

 the hillsides, enclosing small villages, and it then descended to 

 Khor Limur, a clear stream flowing over granite slabs. The 

 little station of Farajok is picturesquely situated on its northern 

 bank. It was erected to protect the road from Fadibek to 

 Lahore, which here branches off from the Obbo road. 



We passed through Yuaia, and halted at a little place called 

 Latinoto, where dome- shaped rocks afforded a good view over 

 the country. Since leaving Madi, we had been continually 

 marching through durrah-fields. The Shiili only eat red 

 durrah in cases of necessity, when, for instance, the eleusine 

 crop fails ; as a rule, they employ it only for brewing beer, so 

 that the consumption of the latter article must be very consider- 

 able. The long mountain chain named Lobull, running up 

 from the south, is ten to fourteen miles distant, to the right 

 of our road ; it must be about 3000 feet high, while its 

 principal summit, Lumoga, probably attains to 4000 feet. 

 Whether this is the " Madi Peak " of the maps I cannot say, 

 but I know that no peak exists in the Madi district, and 

 Jebel Lumoga, in the Shiili district, is not, properly speaking, 

 a " peak." The traveller soon finds out how thoroughly de- 

 fective are the few existing maps of this country. 



