254 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
leathern bag of bread, frequently take that route and pafs in 
fafety. 
Seafons^ ^r. 
The perennial rains, which fall in Dar-Fur, from the middle 
of June till the middle of September, in greater or lefs quantity, 
but generally both frequent and violent, fuddenly inveft the 
face of the country, till then dry and fteril, with a delightful 
verdure. Except where the rocky nature of the foil abfolutely 
impedes vegetation, wood is found in great quantity, nor are the 
natives afliduous completely to clear the ground, even where it 
is defigned for the cultivation of grain. 
As foon as the rains begin, the proprietor, and all the afliftants 
that he can colle(3:, go out to the field, and having made holes 
at about two feet diflance from each other, with a kind of hoe, 
over all the ground he occupies, the dohi is thrown into them, 
and covered with the foot, for their hufbandry requires not 
many inftruments. The time for fowing the wheat is nearly 
the fame. The dohi remains fcarcely two months before it is 
ripe ; the wheat about three. Wheat is cultivated only in fmall 
quantities ; and the prefent Sultan having forbidden the fale 
of it, till the portion wanted for his domeftic ufe be fupplied, it 
is with difhculty to be procured by purchafe. The Mahriek^ or 
greater kajfob, which is a larger grain than the dokn, is alfo com- 
mon, and a fmall fupply of fefamum, {Simjiin in Arabic,) is 
fown. What they term beans is a fpecies of legumen different 
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