bers, soon covers the patient with a cloud of vapour, in which he is allowed to remain until the embers are almost extinguished. This practice commonly produces a profuse perspiration, and wonderfully relieves the sufferer.

"For the dysentery, they use the bark of different trees reduced to powder, and mixed with the patient's food; but this practice is in general very unsuccessful.

"The other diseases which prevail among the negroes, are the yaws; the elephantiasis; and a leprosy of the very worst kind. This last mentioned complaint appears, at the beginning, in scurvy spots upon different parts of the body; which finally settle upon the hands or feet, where the skin becomes withered, and cracks in many places. At length, the ends of the fingers swell and ulcerate; the discharge is acrid and fetid; the nails drop off, and the bones of the fingers become carious, and separate at the joints. In this manner the disease continues to spread, frequently until the patient loses all his fingers and toes. Even the hands and feet are sometimes destroyed by this inveterate malady, to which the negroes give the name of balla jou, 'incurable.'

"The Guinea-worm is likewise very common in certain places, especially at the commencement of the rainy season. The negroes at tribute this disease, which has been described by many writers, to bad water; and allege that the people who drink from wells, are more subject to it than those who drink from streams. To the same cause, they attribute the swelling of the glands of the neck (goitres), which are very common in some parts of Bambarra. I observed also, in the interior countries, a few instances of simple gonorrhea;

but never the confirmed lues. On the whole, it appeared to me that the negroes are better surgeons than physicians.. I found them very successful in their management of fractures and dislocations, and their splints and bandages are simple, and easily removed. The patient is laid upon a soft mat, and the fractured limb is frequently bathed with cold water. All abscesses they open with the actual cautery; and the dressings are composed of either soft leaves, shea butter, or cow's dung, as the case seems, in their judgment to require. Towards the coast, where a supply of European lancets can be procured, they sometimes perform phlebotomy; and in cases of local inflammation, a curious sort of cupping is practised This operation is performed by making incisions in the part, and applying to it a bullock's horn, with a small hole in the end. The operator then takes a piece of bees-wax in his mouth, and putting his lips to the hole, extracts the air from the horn; and by a dexterous use of his tongue, stops up the hole with the wax. This method is found to answer the purpose, and in general produces a plentiful discharge.

"When a person, of consequence dies, the relations and neighbours meet together, and manifest their sorrow by loud and dismal howlings. A bullock or goat is killed for such persons as come to assist at the funeral; which generally takes place in the evening of the same day on which the party died. The negroes have no appropriate burial places, and frequently dig the grave in the floor of the deceased's hut, or in the shade of a favourite tree. The body is dressed in white cotton, and wrapped up in a mat. It is carried to the grave, in the dusk of the evening, by the relations. If the grave is without the walls of

the

the town, a number of prickly bushes are laid upon it, to prevent the wolves from digging up the

body; but I never observed that any stone was placed over the grave, as a monument or memorial."

N my first audience I was too ill to make much observation; I was seated at a distance from the sultan; the visit was short, and I had no opportunity of opening a conversation. He was placed on his seat (cursi) at the door of his tent. Some person had mentioned to him my watch, and a copy of Erpenius's Grammar, which I had with me. He asked to see both; but after casting his eyes on each he returned them. The present I had brought was shown him, for which he thanked me, and rose to retire.

"During the following summer, the first time I got admission to him, he was holding a diwan in the outer court. He was then mounted on a white mule, clothed with a scarlet benish, and had on his head a white turban; which however, together with part of his face, was covered with a thick muslin. On his feet were yellow boots, and the saddle on which he was seated was of crimson velvet, without any ornament of gold or silver. His sword, which was broad and straight, and adorned with an hilt of massy gold, was held horizontally in his right hand. A small canopy of muslin was supported over his head. Amid the noise and hurry of above a thousand persons who were there assembled, I was unable to make myself heard, which the nature of my situation obliged me to attempt,

though not exactly conformable to the etiquette of the court, that, al must to the exclusion of strangers, had appropriated the diwan to the troops, the Arabs, and others connected with the government.

66

"On another occasion I contrived to gain admittance to the interior court by a bribe. The sultan was hearing a cause of a private nature, the proceedings on which were only in the Furian language. He was seated on a kind of chair, which was covered with a Turkey carpet, and wore a red silk turban; his face was then uncovered: the imperial sword was placed across his knees, and his hands were engaged with a chaplet of red coral. Being near him, I fixed my eyes on him, in order to have a perfect idea of his countenance, which, being short-sighted, and not thinking it very decent to use a glass in his presence, I had hitherto scarcely found an opportunity of acquiring. He seemed evidently discomposed at my having observed him thus, and the moment the cause was at an end, he retired very abruptly. Some persons to whom I afterwards remarked the circumstance seemed to think that his attendants had taught him to fear the magic of the Franks, to the operation of which their habit of taking likenesses is imagined by some of the Orientals to conduce. He is a man rather under the

the middle size, of a complexion adust or dry, with eyes full of fire, and features abounding in expres sion. His beard is short but full, and his countenance, though perfectly black, materially differing from the negro; though fifty or fifty-five years of age, he possesses much alertness and activity.

"At another of my visits I found him in the interior court, standing, with a long staff tipped with silver in his right hand on which he leaned, and the sword in his left. He then had chosen to adorn his head with the folds of a red silk turban, composed of the same materials as the western Arabs use for a cincture. The Melek Ibrahim presented him, in my name, with a small piece of silk and cotton, of the manufacture of Damascus. He returned answer, Barak ulla fi!

May the blessing of God be on him!-a phrase in general use on receiving any favour,-and instantly retired, without giving me time to urge the request of which I intended the offering should be the precursor. It is expected of all persons that, on coming to El Fasher, they should bring with them a present of greater or less value, according to the nature of the business in hand. It is no less usual, before leaving the royal residence, to ask permission of the sultan for that purpose. With this latter form, which was to me unpleasant, I sometimes complied, but more frequently omitted it. But on this occasion, having been long resident there, I thought fit to make a last effort to promote my design. The day preceding that which I had fixed for my return happened to be a great public audience. I found the monarch seated on his throne (cursi), under a lofty canopy, composed not of one material, but of various stuffs of Syrian and even

of Indian fabric, hung loosely-on a light frame of wood, no two pieces of the same pattern. The place he sat in was spread with small Turkey carpets. The Meleks were seated at some distance on the right and left, and behind them a line of guards, with caps, ornamented in front with a small piece of copper and a black ostrich feather. Each bore a spear in his hand, and a target of the hide of the hippopotamus on the opposite arm. Their dress consisted only of a cotton shirt, of the manufacture of the country. Rehind the throne were fourteen or fifteen eunuchs, clothed indeed splendidly in habiliments of cloth or silk, but clumsily adjusted, with-out any regard to size or colour. The space in front was filled with suitors and spectators, to the number of more than fifteen hundred. A kind of hired encomiast stood on the monarch's left hand, crying out, à plein gorge, during the whole ceremony, See the buffaloe, the offspring of a buffaloe, a bull of bulls, the elephant of superior strength, the powerful Sultan, Abd-el-rachmân el-rashid! May 'God prolong thy life!-O Master -May God assist thee, and render thee victorious!'

6

"From this audience, as from those which had preceded it, I was obliged to retire as I had come, without effecting any purpose. I was told there were occasions when the sultan wears a kind of crown, as it is common with other African monarchs; but of this practice I had no oppor. tanity to bear testimony. When he appeared in public, a number of troops arined with light spears usually attended him, and several of his slaves were employed to bear a kind of umbrella over his head, which concealed his face from the multitude. When he passes, all the spectators

spectators are obliged to appear barefooted, and commonly to kneel. His subjects bow to the earth, but this compliance is not expected from foreigners. Even the Meleks, when they approach the throne, creep on their hands and knees, which gave occasion to an Egyptian to remark, that the Jarea in Fûr was a Melek, and the Melek a Jarea alluding to the servile behaviour of the ministers, and the publicity of women in the domestic of. fices of the palace.

"The magistracy of one, which seems tacitly, if it be not expressly favoured by the dispensation of Mohammed, as in most other countries professing that religion, prevails in Dar-Fûr. The monarch indeed can do nothing contrary to the korân, but he may do more than the laws established thereon will authorise and as there is no council to control or even to assist him, his power may well be termed despotic. He speaks in public of the soil and its productions as his personal property, and of the people as little else than his

slaves.

:

"When manifest injustice appears in his decisions, the Fukkara, or ecclesiastics, express their sentiments with some boldness, but their opposition is without any appropriate object, and consequently its effects are inconsiderable. All the monarch fears is a general alienation of the minds of the troops, who may at their will raise another, as enterprising and unprincipled as himself to the same envied superiority.

His power in the provinces is delegated to officers who possess an authority equally arbitrary. In those districts, which have always or for a long time formed an integral part

of the empire, these officers are ge nerally called Meleks. In such as have been lately conquered, or perhaps, more properly, have been annexed to the dominion of the sultan, under certain stipulations, the chief is suffered to retain the title of Sultan, yet is tributary to and receives his appointment from the sultan of Fûr.

"In this country, on the death of the monarch, the title descends of right to the oldest of his sons; and in default of heirs male, as well as during the minority of those heirs, to his brother. But under various pretences this received rule of succession is frequently infringed. The son is said to be too young, or the late monarch to have obtained the government by unjust means; and, at length, the pretensions of those who have any apparent claim to the regal authority are to be decided by war, and become the prize of the strongest.

"It was in this manner that the present sultan gained possession of the imperial dignity. A preceding monarch, named Bokar, had three sons, Mobammed, surnamed Teraub, el-Chalife, and Abd-el-rachmnán. Teraub the eldest (which cognomen was acquired by the habit of rolling in the dust when a child) first obtained the government. He is said to have ruled thirty-two lunar years, one of the longest reigns remembered in the history of the country.* The sons he left at his death being all young, the second brother, under pretence that none of them was old enough to reign, which was far from being the fact, and in some degree favoured by the troops for the generosity by which he was eminently distinguished, under the title of Chalife, vicegerent of the

realm,

ter.

realm, assumed the reins of government. His reign was of short duration, and characterised by nothing but violence and rapine. He had been only a short time seated on the throne, when a discontented party joining with the people of Kordofân, in a war with whom his brother Teraub had perished, found employment for him in that quarAbd el-rachmân, who, during the life of his brother, had assume the title of Faquir, and ap. parently devoted himself to religion, was then in Kordofan. He took advantage of the situation of the chalife, and the increasing discontent of the soldiery, to get himself appointed their leader. Returning towards Fûr, he met his brother in the field, and they came to an engagement, which, whe her by the prowess of Abd-el-rachmân, or the perfidy of the other's adherents, is unknown, was decided in favour of the former. The chalife was wounded; and while one of his sons parried the blows that were aimed at his life, they perished together covered with wounds. The children of Teraub, the rightful heirs, were in the mean-time for gotten, and are now wandering about, scraping a miserable subsistence from the parsimonious alms of their usurping uncle. Abdel-rachmâ:n thought fit to sacrifice but one of them, who being of mature age, and, according to general report, endowed with talents greater than the rest, was the chief object of his suspicion and his fears.

"The usurper, after the victory, found himself in peaceable possession of the throne; yet judging it right to maintain for a time the show of moderation and self denial, he employed that dissimulation for which his countrymen are famous,

in persuading them that his affections were fixed on the blessings of futurity, and that he was indifferent to the splendour of empire. He refused even to see the treasures of his deceased brother, in gold, slaves, &c. and, as he entered the interior of the palace, drew the folds of the turban over his eyes, saying the temptation was too great for him, and invocating the Supreme Being to preserve him from its effects. For a certain time too he confined himself to the possession of four wives (free women) allowed by the law of the prophet. At length finding his claim unquestioned, and his authority firmly established, the veil of sanctity, now no longer necessary, was thrown aside, and ambition and avarice appeared without disguise. He now wastes whole days in misanthropic solitude, gazing in stupid admiration on heaps of costly apparel, and an endless train of slaves and camels, and revels in the submissive charms of near two hundred free women. Abd-el rachmân assumed the imperial dignity in the year of the Hejira 1202, of the Christian æra 1787. The discontent of the people however, and particularly of the soldiery, in consequence of the severity of his regulations, and his personal avarice, were (1795) very much increasing, which made me imagine his reign would not be long.

In that part of the country where I resided are found neither lakes, rivers, marshes, nor any other appearance of water but the wells which are dug for domestic consumption, except during the rainy season. At that period torrents, of greater or less dimensions, intersect the country in all directions. The rainy season lasts from before the middle of June to the middle or

end