Very few of the natives of Soudan are able to distinguish gold from copper, or tin from lead. Gold-dust is sometimes used, however, as a medium of exchange. In Darfur there are absolutely no precious metals but such as are imported from abroad, and even the ornaments of women are principally composed of glass beads. It is not astonishing, therefore, that the Forians remained long without knowing the use of silver or gold coins. When commerce, however, became extended, they were obliged to invent some kind of money, and they first used rings of pewter, which they employed for the purchase of daily necessities. For things of a greater price, a long piece of stuff, about five yards long, and half a yard wide, is used. Slaves have also a fixed monetary value, according to their height. For example, a horse may be worth three or four sedasy, or slave, who, from the heel to the lower lobe of the ear, measures six spans. In Darfur are known neither the mahboub nor the piastre, nor any kind of coin used in civilised countries, except the abou-medfah, or pillar-dollar. In the chief towns glass beads are used as money; and in the parts about Guerly they use the falgo, or cake of salt, prepared in a particular manner. There are three kinds of salt in Darfur,—the zaghawy, which is procured from the lakes of the same name; the falgo, which is of a grey colour, opaque, and rather agreeable to the taste; and the mydaoub, which is of a blood-red colour, and by far the best. At Krousa tobacco is used as money, and is called taba. It is pounded into a paste, and made up into hollow cones, about the size of a pear. By the way, I have read a piece of verses composed by one of the descendants of the Kaliph Abou-Bekr, the object of which is to prove that smoking is not a sin. These verses date from about the middle of the ninth century of the Hegira. I shall extract one or two verses:— “The all-powerful God has produced from the soil of our country a plant, the true name of which is tabgha. “If any one in his ignorance maintains that this plant is forbidden, say to him, ‘How do you prove it? By what verse of the Koran?’ “This plant does not inebriate, and this is why God has not condemned it. Whence hast thou taken thy word of condemnation? “If thou inspirest the smoke of the tabgha, it rejoices and solaces thee; but never forget to say before the first puff,—B’ism Illah, in the name of God. “And when thou hast finished, give praise to the single God, and this will bring upon thee abundant blessings.” In some places little bundles of cotton-twist are used as money, and at others strings of onions. At one market the iron head of a kind of hoe is employed; and in the Gouz the same purpose is served by handfuls of millet. In many places the measure of value is an ox; and they say, for example, “this horse is worth ten or twenty oxen.” CHAPTER X.