The harpoons employed against crocodiles and hippopotami, have, with the short point, which has only one barb, a length of thirteen to fourteen feet. The shank, of bamboo, is an inch and a half thick, and is not fastened to the point (neither are the shafts to the beads of lances, so that it comes off in launching the harpoon. The point itself remains by a long thin line made of bark, in the possession of the fisherman, and is always visible to him at the end by a float of ambak wood, until the animal struck has exhausted its rage; and then, sitting in his hewn-out trunk of a tree (sürtuk), he takes the line in his hand, and with a spear attacks the exhausted beast as it comes up to the surface for air, until it bleeds to death. The ivory rings, two of which are often seen on the upper part of each arm, are two pounds and upwards in weight; the fluted clubs of ebony are two to three pounds. The knives are crooked, rounded at the top, and half a foot long, with a handle one and a half or less in length. The people procure the materials for their beautiful works in iron from Mount Korèk, in the tanks and gohrs of which iron is said to be found, like sand, in immense quantities. They brought me a little basket full of this coarse-grained black mineral, and with it a few scoriæ. According to Marian, the men smelt in earthen pots; for furnaces and such like are as little to be looked for here as in Kordofàn. This is pure magnet-iron, which, as my Nuba thinks, they free from the larger stones, and then shake in a sieve, to free it from the fine rocky sand. Girard says that this magnet-iron shews also, in several places, specular-iron, and recalls to mind similar appearances in the great Mica slate chain of mountains of the Brazils. The specimens of stones procured from Mount Korèk, through the natives, were of a reddish coarse-grained granite, although we had expected gneiss from thence, having found it near and upon the island of Tshanker. Yet I would not be certain that these specimens were not taken from some other mountain. What rich results might ensue from an examination of these mountains! CHAPTER IV. KING LÀKONO’S PRIDE. — BEER KNOWN TO THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. — BAR OF ROCKS. — WAR-DANCE OF THE NATIVES. — DETERMINATION OF THE TURKS TO RETURN, AND DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE AUTHOR. — COMMENCEMENT OF THE RETURN VOYAGE. — REPUBLICANS IN THE KINGDOM OF BARI. — VISIT OF THE FRENCHMEN TO MOUNT KORÈK. — REASON OF THE AUTHOR’S AVERSION TO ARNAUD. — CONDUCT OF VAISSIÈRE AND SCENE IN HIS DIVAN. — CULTIVATION OF COTTON AT BARI. — APATHY OF FEÏZULLA-CAPITAN AND THE CREW. — SUPERIORITY OF MAN TO WOMAN IN A NATIVE STATE. — WATCHHOUSES.