.128 F U 
otherwife, about five minutes, when yovi will perceive 
the roots of the wool or fur feparate, expand, and divide 
freely. After the above operation has been . effected, 
take the other veffel, fill it with warm water, and there¬ 
in immerfe the wool or fur; and thoroughly wafh, 
cleanCe, and prefs from it all filth or dirt that adheres 
thereto. After it is fo cleanfed, let it be dried by a flow 
fire-fioye, or by heat of the fun, if the feafon will permit. 
After it is completely dried, pull or part it by hand, or 
otherwife, as it will freely part. After it is thus parted, 
bow it with th.e bow-firing; and tlie wool or fur will be 
fit for the purpofe of being ufed in the manufacture of 
hats, or other articles of clothing, and to be nearly equal 
to every purpofe for which the wool or fur called beaver 
is ufed; and is alfo of fo fine a texture, and fo good a 
flaplt;’, as to be convertible to any other article of felting 
or clothing.” The patent is dated June 6, 1799. 
FUR, adv, [It is now commonly written far.'] At a 
difiance : 
The w hite lovely dove 
Doth on her wing her utmofi fwiftnefs prove. 
Finding the gripe of faulcon fierce not fur, Sidney, 
FUR, or Furr, [fomctimes written Dar-Fur, but 
not properly ; dar being only an appellative, equally ap¬ 
plicable to a town, a village, or a kingdom ; and thus 
written, it means literally the kingdom of Fur.'] A king- 
dom in the interior of Africa, fituated between the ter¬ 
ritories of Bergoo and Kordofan ; great part of the latter 
of which was conquered by the fultan of Fur, in 1794 
and 1795. The chief towns are Cobbe, Swcini,, Kurma, 
Cubcabia, Ril, Cours, Shoba, Gidid, and Gelle. The 
town of Sweini is the inlet to all merchants attd traders 
from Egypt, who come with the caravan; and here they 
are obliged to wait till the pleafure of the fultan is known 
as to their further approach and defiination, which is 
communicated to them by the melek or governor. 
Cobbe, w'hich is upwards of two miles in length, appears 
to be the capital of the empire, and is the principal refort 
of trade, and refidence of the merchants. The fultan 
refides in a plain but extenfive building, a coiifiderable 
part of which forms the harem, or apartments for his 
women, who are numerous. 
As the Mahometan religion prevails in Dar-Fur, the 
monarch can do nothing contrary to the Koran ; but, as 
there is no council to control or even to afilfi him, his 
power may well be termed defpotic. Fie fpeaks in public 
of the foil and its produftion's as his perfonal property, 
and of the people as little elfe than his flaves. His 
power in the provinces is delegated to officers who poffefs 
an authority etpially arbitrary. In thofe difirifts, which 
have always or for a long time formed an integral part of 
the empire, thefe officers are generally called meleks. 
In ftich as have been lately conquered, or perhaps, more 
properly, have been annexed to the dominion of the fultan 
under certain fiipulatibns, the chief is fuffered to retain 
the title of fultan, yet is tributary to and receives his 
appoiiitment from the fultan of Fur. In this country', 
on the death of the monarch, the title defeends of right 
to the oldeft of his fons ; and in default of heir.s male, as 
well as during the minority of thole heirs, to his brother. 
But under various pretences this received rule of fuccef- 
fion is frequently infringed. The fon is laid to be too 
young, or the late monarch to have obtained the go¬ 
vernment by unjufi means; and, at length, the preten- 
fions of thole who have any apparent claim to the regal 
authority are to be decided by war, and become the prize 
of the ftrongeft. It was in this manner that the prefent 
lultan, Abd-el-rachman, gained poffefiion of the imperial 
dignity, in the year of the hejira 1202, of the chrifiian 
;era 1.787. Of the appearance of this monarch and his 
court (in the year 1795) Mr. Browne gives the following 
defeription : I found the monarch feated on his throne 
{curfi), under a lofty canopy, compofed not of one ma, 
terial, but of various fluft'^ of Syrian and even of Indian 
R. 
fabric, hung loofely on-a light frame of wood, no two 
pieces of the fame pattern. The place he fat in was 
I'pread with fmall Turkey carpets. The meleks were 
feated at fome difiance on the right and left, and behind 
them a line of guards, with caps, ornamented in front 
with a fmall piece of copper and a'black bfirich feather. 
Each, bore a fpear in his hand, and a target of the liide 
of the hippopotanms on the oppofite arm. Their drefs 
confifted only of a cotton fnirt, of the manufadlure of the 
country. Behind the throne were fourteen or fifteen 
eunuchs, clothed indeed fplendidly in habilimentsof cloth 
or lilk, but clumfily adjufied, wlthcut any regard to fize 
or colour. The fpace in front was filled with luitors and 
fpeclators, to the number of more than fifteen hundred. 
A kind of hired encomiaft flood on the monarch’s left 
hand, crying out, a plcine gorge, during the wliole cere, 
.mony, “ See thebuffaloe, the offspring of a buffaloe, a bull 
of bulls, the elephant of fupe'rior firength, the powerful 
fultan Abd-el-rachman-el-ralhid ! May God prolong thy 
life !-—O mafter—May God afiifi thee, and render thee 
vidlorious!” I was told there were occafions when tlie 
fultan wears a kind of crovvn, as is common with other 
African monarchs; but of this pratlice 1 had no oppor¬ 
tunity to hear fefiimony. Wlien he appeared in public, 
a number of troops armed with light Ipears ufually at¬ 
tended him, and i'cveral of his flaves were employed to 
bear a kind of umbrella over his head, which concealed 
his face from the muilitude. When he palTes, all the 
fpeffators are obliged to apjrear barefooted, -and com¬ 
monly to kneel : his fubjefts bow to tlie earth, but this 
compliance is not expected from foreigners. The fultan 
Abd-el-rachman, foon after he became polTciTed of fo.ve- 
reign authority, with the cftenfible motive of tefiifylng 
his attachment to the religion of tlie propliet, but more 
perhaps with a view of obtaining greater weight among 
.Ids fubjects, by fome mark of the confideration of the 
fiift of Mohammedan piinces, thouglit proper to lend a 
prefent to Coiifiantinople; it confilled of three of the 
choicell eunuchs, and tiiree of tlie mofi beautiful female 
Haves that could be procured. The Othman emperor, 
when they were prefemed, had, it is faid, never heard of 
the fultan of Dar-Fur; btit'he returned an highly-orna¬ 
mented fabre, a .rich pelKTe, and a ring let with a fingle 
diamond of no inconfiderable value. 
Previouflyto the efiahliflintent of Illamifm (about 150 
years ago) and kingfitip, the people of Fur feem to have for. 
med wandering tribes,in which (late many of the neigliboiir- 
ingnations to this day remain. In tlieir perfons they differ 
from the negroes of the coafi of Guinea, Their hair isgene- 
rally fiiort and woolly, though fome are feen with it of the 
lengtli of eight or ten inches, which they efieem a beauty. 
Their complexion is for the molt part perfedtly black. 
Tlie Arabs, who are numerous within the empire, retain 
their difiinftion of feature, colour, and language. They 
mofi commonly intermarry with each other. The flaves, 
which are brought from the country they call Fertit, 
(land of idolaters,) perfeflly refemble thofe of Guinea, 
and their language is peculiar to themfelves. In mofi: 
of the towns, except Cobbe, which is the cliief refidence 
of foreign merchants, and even at court, the vernacul.rr 
idiom is in more frequent ufe than the Arabic; yet the 
latter is pretty generally underfiood. The judicial pro¬ 
ceedings, which are held in the monarch’s prefence, are 
conduced in both languages, all that i.s fpoken in the 
one being immediately tranflated into the other by an 
interpreter. 
On all merchandize imported into the kingdom of Fur, 
the fuitan has a duty, which in many inftances amounts 
to near a tenth ; and when they are about to leave Dur- 
Fur on their return to Egypt, another tax is demanded on 
the flaves exported, under pretence of a voluntary dou¬ 
ceur, to be exempt from having their flaves fcnttiniled. 
All forfeitures for mifdemeanors are due to the king ; and 
this is a confiderable article; for in cafe of a difpute in 
which blood is filed, as often happens, he makes a de, 
mand 
