31. A plant of the same size with the _Meluchia_, of very dark green, strong smell and taste. It grows in great quantity, and with the natives forms a principal article of food. They call it _Cowel_. 32. Sesamum, _Simsim_, Ar. From this an oil is extracted. It is also bruised in a mortar, and mixed with the food. It is even used by the great to fatten their horses. 33. _Mahreik_, and _Dokn_, the holcus dochna, of _Forskal_, as has been already mentioned, are the basis of their provision, but chiefly the latter. 34. Tobacco is produced in abundance in Fertît and Dar Fungaro. It seems to be unquestionably of native growth. CHAP. XIX. DAR-FÛR. _Government — History — Agriculture, &c. — Population — Building — Manners and customs — Revenue — Articles of commerce, &c._ _Government._ 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 generally 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.