266 LABOEE TO FATIKO. 



furnishes abundance of long switches and branches, which, 

 driven into the ground in a circle, are arched over and bound 

 together with bast; thus a framework is formed resembling a 

 hencoop, and is strengthened by hoops or switches tied round 

 it, and thatched with grass held in place by strips of bast and 

 thin switches. A shelter is thus formed which is large enough 

 to contain an ankareb, a few boxes, a table, and a chair, and 

 which resists the rain and storm better than a tent. One hour 

 is quite sufficient for a few men to construct a comfortable hut. 

 The village of Fanto is inhabited by Shiili, but the huts are 

 like those of the Madi, and do not resemble the Shiili dwell- 

 ings farther north, which are built like Shiluk huts. Each 

 hut has a small, carefully fenced tobacco plantation (Nicotiana 

 ncstica), beside which lie heaps of ashes for strewing over the 

 plants and the soil, as a protection against insects. Small cala- 

 bashes are grown, and Helmia bulbifera, which, however, is 

 more common in the Madi than in the Shiili districts. Only 

 the round subterranean bulbs are eaten, and when I gathered 

 some of the aerial bulbs I was strongly urged to leave them 

 alone, the men saying that they w T ould kill me. Bed durrah, 

 sesame, eleusine, and a little duhhn (Penicillaria) are the chief 

 articles of food ; but throughout the Shiili country eleusine 

 corn is preferred for eating, while red durrah is used for brew- 

 ing, and eaten only in times of need. Whenever the eleusine 

 crop fails, as it partially did this year, the people everywhere 

 complain of hunger, although there is abundance of red durrah. 

 Besides these cereals, there are numerous plants of which the 

 seeds or leaves are eaten as vegetables. Two sorts of cucumber, 

 two of hibiscus, one of them (Hibiscus cannabina) used for making 

 packthread, the other grown for its seeds, and a species of 

 Echinops, from which salt is made, are cultivated everywhere. 

 Each hut contains large water-jars and small cooking vessels 

 of clay, of the usual shapes. Here, as elsewhere, the pottery 

 is made by women, and it is only south of 2° N. lat. that this 

 work devolves upon the men. Every woman lives with her 

 children in a hut of her own, and lias her own granary. In 

 front of each dwelling there usually stands a miniature hut, 

 containing some corn, small bones, &c, and near it a kind of 

 miniature sleeping-bench is placed, and is looked upon as a 



