412 
TRADE OF KHAETOOM. 
few or no troops ; but there were shops kept by Euro- 
peans and natives, where nearly all commodities might 
be had, including such varied articles as guns, ready- 
made clothes, wines, Bass's pale ale, groceries, hard- 
ware goods, &c. All manner of trades are carried on 
in Khartoom ; and on the streets water-carriers and 
people selling pigeons and fowls plied their voca- 
tions. Old Turks sat playing chess and backgammon ; 
and in the uncovered streets and open spaces stalls 
for cooked fish, trinkets, sweetmeats, and vegetables, 
were laid out as at a market. One is surprised where 
all these things come from in such a desert country. 
Except the irrigated parts, and the senna-plant grow- 
ing as a weed, Khartoom does not yield a single natu- 
ral or manufactured export. The river presented a 
busy scene; all the firewood, corn, earthen jars, bricks, 
grass and palm -leaves for matting and rope, stones 
and lime, Berber salt, and European goods, were being 
landed from boats for the use of the inhabitants. 
Gum (the best coming from Kordofan), ivory, bees'- 
wax, cotton, and sesamum (called sin-sin), are brought 
thither, but merely pass through on their way to 
Egypt. The White Nile is said to have 250 boats 
trading upon it yearly, including those on the Sobat 
and Bahr Ghazal. The Blue river probably has as 
many more ; but we saw only forty-five boats lying off 
Khartoom, and ten on the stocks, of which the largest 
measured twenty yards in length. The only manu- 
factures we observed at Khartoom were a few for oil 
and soap for home consumption. The oil-press was a 
heavy millstone placed on edge, and pulled round over 
sesamum - seed by a bullock with blinders. After 
being well bruised, the grain, now looking like a mash 
