Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/140

 Shuli, and Shilluks, showing affinities rather with that of the Niam-Niam. This difference in speech and resemblance in customs is doubtless due to the presence of two ethnical elements now fused in one nation. The foreign intruders probably came from the south-west, where the Madi occupy the water-parting between the Nile and Congo basins, and where they are conterminous with the Kalika, allied to them in speech and origin.:

In the Madi territory the chief Egyptian station is Dufilé, on the westDufli bank of the Nile, near the great bend it describes before its confluence with the Asua.

It occupies the apex of the triangle formed by the two streams and by the

Somerset Nile between Foweira and Magungo, over against another river navigable for some 12 miles. Thanks to this important strategical position, Dufilé cannot fail to become a large centre of trade. Here is the station of the steamers on the Upper Nile, which is obstructed farther down by the Fola Rapids. Beyond its palm-groves are visible the peaks of the Kuku range, rising at some points 600 or 700 feet above the river. Between these hills and the Bahr-el-Jebel are the fortified posts of Laboré and Mugi, near the Yerbora Rapids, while southwards Dufileé is connected with Fatiko by the populous village of Fuloro, one of the granaries of Egyptian Sudan. The fields of the Madi in this district are cultivated with great care by the women and children, who sow each grain of corn separately.