Their dress consists of a piece of cotton-stuff which they wind round their bodies, and very few of them only wear shirts. Their heads are uncovered, but on journeys they wear a sheep or goatskin, after the fashion of the leathern apron of the miners of Germany, to enable them to sit down, a position which would otherwise be impracticable, considering the burning heat of the sand. They always carry a few spears and a shield. Foreigners visiting these countries cannot travel more economically than by engaging the Kubbabeesh; in Dongola, the Dongolas indeed keep camels, but I advise every one to give the preference to the former, for although the government pays eighty piasters from Lobeid to Debba, or Dolip, on the Nile, (in the province of Dongola,) whereas the Djelabi only pay sixty piasters, sometimes even only forty-five, for the same distance, and thirty piasters from Lobeid to Khartoom, the Kubbabeesh always give the preference to an engagement with the latter because the payment, although less, is effected in ready money, whereas the government make great deductions, and force them moreover to accept of goods in lieu of cash. CHAPTER VIII. DAR-HAMMER. This people immigrated several years ago from Darfour into Kordofan; a large branch of the same tribe, however, is yet to be found in the former country. Their occupation consists in rearing camels and in agriculture. They are possessed of the finest “ships of the desert” in Kordofan; they do not, however, undertake transports like the Kubbabeesh, but merely trade in these animals, which they sell to the Djelabi, Kubbabeesh, and neighbouring tribes. They are obliged to furnish the government with the quantity of camels necessary for the slave-hunts or other grand expeditions, and to bring them to Cairo. They also form the guard of the borders towards Darfour, several thousands of men armed with shield and spear, and in part with large double-edged swords being always in readiness to prevent an invasion from that quarter. No incursion has ever yet taken place, but many a depredatory excursion has been undertaken by the Dar-Hammer themselves into the neighbouring villages of Darfour; and the Egyptian government not only tolerates these marauding invasions, but lends the Dar-Hammer every possible assistance, furnishing them even with a few Bedouin horsemen on these occasions. These expeditions are, in fact, virtually undertaken for the government, for the number of camels they demand as tribute from the tribe is too great for the sheikh to be able to furnish, and he is therefore forced to steal the deficiency in Darfour.