Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/330

 260 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. causing residence in Kordofsln to be very dangerous to Arabs, Turks, and Europeans, who often fall victims to the endemic fevers. Towards the end of September, after three or four months of intermittent rains, the wind changes. The north-east trade winds, deflected south by the progress of the sun towards the tropic of Capricorn, now sets in, bringing cold weather in its train ; during the night the temperature occasionally falls to 59° F. Flora. The flora of Kordofan is not very rich ; acacias, tamarisks, baobabs, and such- like trees give the landscape its characteristic appearance in the regions which are not barren or completely deforested. The acacias, which furnish the gum of com- merce, belong to various species. The grey-barked variety, which yields the best quality of gum, is scattered in numerous thickets throughout the eastern part of the country. In. the southern region the red- barked acacias, which furnish the least valuable kind of gum, extend in vast forests almost useless from an economi- cal point of view ; very few villagers or nomads take the trouble to collect the gum which exudes from these trees. The most important harvest throughout nearly the whole of Kordofan, is that of the dokhn (penicilaria typhoides), which arrives at maturity four months after being sown, a period corresponding to the kharif. This variety of millet requires so little moisture that it thrives better on the sandy dunes than in the hollows ; nine-tenths of the population live on this dokhn. The durrah, or Egyptian millet, is cultivated only in the well-watered mountain valleys. Wheat, sesame, haricots, tobacco, and cotton are found in a few districts near the capital. Hemp is used for interlacing the walls of the huts. Of all the vegetable products of Kordofan, gum is exported in the largest quantities ; the chase also contributes to the movement of the exchanges more than cattle-breeding. Ostrich feathers are the most valuable articles that the northern caravans obtain from the natives. But these latter have almost exterminated the ostrich in the eastern plains of the country ; herds of ostriches are now met with only to the west of the Kaja Moimtains, and the frontier of Dar-F6r. The steppes of Kordofan would be admirably adapted for ostrich farms ; but at present this bird is not kept in captivity, and the hunters kill it to such an extent that it is yearly diminishing in numbers. The ibis is very common in Kordofan, as many as fifty nests being found on one tree; this bird like the stork, is considered sacred, and the natives do not permit strangers to kill it. The people of Kordofan have a few domestic animals, such as horses, asses, goats, and sheep ; but the pack-animals belong more especially to the nomad tribes. To the south the Baggaras possess at least one hundred thousand humped oxen, trained to bear burdens, but quite useless for field opera- tions ; the cows supply but little milk. The scarcity of water in the plains has modified the habits of the native breed of cattle, which come to the trbughs only every two or three days. Camels thrive only in northern Kordofan, amongst the Kababish nomads ; south of the thirteenth degree of latitude they perish under the attacks of swarms of gadflies and other venomous insects.