but they had no desire to work for the soldiers of the government, as they knew very well that they would leave them little or none of the cotton produced, and they should therefore be obliged to buy the cloth for their own consumption as they do at present; hence they save themselves the labour. Indigo would thrive very well in various parts of Kordofan,—for it grows spontaneously in some districts,—and its cultivation would prove a source of great profit to the government. Experiments have been already made, and have furnished indigo of a quality superior to that of Egypt; but the government pays no attention to this subject, and the natives are far too ignorant to stumble upon an object of so much importance without a hint from some kind friend. All the articles above mentioned are reared in gardens, the cultivation of which is entrusted to slaves. The irrigation is effected artificially by means of draw-wells. As soon as the rainy season is at an end, every native hastens to put his garden in order, which during the former period had been, as it were, lying fallow; for if any one were to venture to sow or plant during the period of the rains, he must expect everything either to be washed out of the earth by the violent showers, or to rot before it arrived at maturity. Very few articles are, therefore, cultivated, and these merely where the position of the land is suitable. The absolute tillage, or treatment of the soil, requires but slight trouble, for the clods of earth are simply broken by means of a short-pointed stick, beaten into mould with a rather thicker staff, and then levelled with the hand, or with the same instrument. The seed is now sown, and covered with a little earth; and small furrows are made in the various beds, which are daily watered from a draw-well. Agriculture, in general, is confined to dockn, a species of field-fruit which may be compared to the millet, from which it however differs in the circumstance that the stalk, with the inflorescence, attains the height of seven or eight feet. It is the only species of grain used by the inhabitants of Kordofan and the bordering countries, and is indispensable to them for their bread. It is a very exuberant and profitable plant, and is cultivated everywhere throughout the whole province. The fields in which the dockn grows are generally very large, and many of them are situated in the forests. To render these woodland tracts arable, the trees are hewn down to the height of a man; by the next year they are dry—when fires are lighted, the stems being burnt at the same time with the brushwood. These fields do not require as much labour and attention as our corn-fields. The natives are not acquainted with the plough, the harrow, or, in fact, with any other civilized engine of husbandry; a single falciform piece of iron, pointed at either extremity, and furnished in the centre with a staff, answers the purpose of all necessary implements. This instrument