A Forian woman, of whatever class, generally prepares the food of her husband and the guests who come to the house. The poor assist the men in sowing and reaping, in gathering grain and cotton. At other periods of the year they collect a store of fruit and many kinds of wild grains for their families. It is they also who gather in the water-melons, and pound them, and prepare them for eating. They go out into the fields with their husbands and cut down the weeds, which they collect for fuel. The very young girls keep the flocks, and afterwards accompany their parents in their work. In the evening it is the wife who brings home upon her head a great packet of wood and dry grass or weeds, to serve for the purposes of cookery and to light up the huts. The poor people generally endeavour to buy each a she-goat or a sheep, on the milk of which they live. They are in a most frightful state of want and misery, suffering from the tyranny of their governors and the exigencies of war. Their life is that of slaves. Let us turn from the consideration of these humble topics to that of the government and the constitution of the country of Wadaï. _Certes_, the most powerful and the most respected sovereign in all Soudan was Sultan Saboun. It is the custom in Wadaï to recognise as a prince only one who is born of a mother of noble origin, whose genealogy is pure, and who belongs to one of the five privileged tribes. The son of a slave, even if she were a descendant of the Prophet, can never ascend the throne. I have already traced back Sultan Saboun to the great Seleih, and it is not necessary to repeat what I then said. The functions and dignities of Darfur differ in nature from those of Wadaï. In the latter country there are eight Kamkolaks; four of the first rank and four of the second. They form a judicial tribunal, whose decisions can never be reversed by the Sultan. If he has strong reasons for blaming any particular sentence, and they persist in it, he may discharge them, but he cannot reverse what they have decreed without the assistance of the Grand Kadi. The highest rank after the Kamkolaks is that of Momo, mother of the Sultan; then comes that of Hobaba, or chief wife; and afterwards are ranged the Aguid, the Viziers, the Kamna, and the Turguenak. Then follow the kings of the mountains, the governors of secondary rank, and the kings. Twice a-week, on Mondays and Fridays, the Wadaïan Sultan gives a public audience to receive the complaints of his people. On the Monday he occupies a room which overlooks the Fasher, where are the lines of trees I have mentioned, under which is established the tribunal of the Kamkolaks, indicated by a line of lances stuck up in the ground. The judges remain there all the morning and afternoon, and only go away during the great heat, or when it rains. As I have mentioned, it is also under a tree that the Sultan gives audience on Friday.