Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/338

 268 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. Africa. Its principal relations are not with Khartum, but with the villages situated at the end of the great bend which the river describes above Dongola. As the cataracts of the Kile greatly increase the cost of transport, it is in the interest of the caravans coming from Egypt to follow the desert route south-east towards Khartum and south towards El-Obeid. In both of these towns, articles of European manufacture commanded the same market price before the rising of Kordof^n. The trade of El-Obeid was then very considerable, especially the sale of slaves who, according to Munzinger, form three -fourths of the population of Kordofan. Like the European cottons consigned to the western countries, nearly all the ostrich feathers imported from For pass through El-Obeid. The exporta- tion of gums in 1880 was valued at 100,000 cwt., which is equivalent to a sum of £80,000.* Shoiild El-Obeid lose this trade, wherein lay its importance, what would become of this capital of Kordofan, even were it to be chosen as the capital of a new empire under any of the rival Mahdis ? However, ever since the destruction of the Egyptian army the isolation of the town has not been so great as might be supposed, and relations with Tripoli have been actively carried on through TVadai' and Fezzan ; but the Europeans have not played their usual role as the inter- mediaries in this revived commerce. El-Obeid does not offer the appearance of a compact city ; it is rather a collec- tion of villages relieved here and there by brick buildings erected in the " Christian style." Around the southern quarter, which is the town properly so-called, nearly all the dwellings are mere tokuls, like those of the country hamlets — huts of earth, which collapse under a heavy shower of rain, or else cabins of mats or branches, surrounded by thorny hedges to prevent the camels from gnawing the cloths and ropes which are placed on the houses. The populations of various origin are distributed throughout the different quarters according to their ethnical affinities. Here are settled the Jalin or Danagla merchants ; farther on reside the Nubas, the Takruri, the immigrants of For and the Maugrabins, whilst before the war four or five hundred Greeks had their shops in the centre of the southern quarter. A few gardens skirt the kheran, or sandy river-beds, which intersect the town, and which are sometimes flooded ; but nearly all the cabins are surrounded by fields of dokhn. During the dry seasons nothing but dusty spaces intervene between the huts, and the town presents a dreary appearance ; but towards the end of the kharif , when the vegetation is in its beauty, the outlying quarters of El-Obeid appear like vast prairies, and the conic roofs of the tokuls are hardly visible above the floating sea of red -eared dokhn. Before the war the population of El-Obeid, including the suburban villages, was calculated at 30,000 persons. An Italian traveller even ventures to raise the number to 100,000 ; but it is probable that the capital of Kordofan has become almost abandoned since the first Muhdi ordered tiie people, under pain of death, to quit their brick houses and dwell either in the tent or in • Trade of Kordofan, ncc^rding to Prout, in 1876: Imprr's, £50 Oro ; Exports, £132,000. Total, £182,000.