Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/860

824 (Penicillaria) and durra are the usual cereals. In the south and west onions, pepper, bananas, citrons, and various fruits are grown freely ; and in several places an indi- gsnous kind of tobacco of great strength is cultivated. The deleb palm is abundant in the south, and on the eastern frontiers the monkey-bread or baobab compensates for the deficiency of water. Copper is obtained in sufficient quantity to make it a matter of export ; antimony was worked in the time of Mohammed-el-Fadhl ; lead occurs in Gebel Kuttum in the Dar el Gharb ; iron is wrought in the south-west province ; and deposits of rock-salt are met with in various places. Cattle, sheep, and camels are both numerous and of excellent breeds. Horses are comparatively rare ; and, with the exception of those imported from Dongola, they belong to a small but sturdy native race. The elephant has been exterminated ; but the ostrich is common in the east in the country of the Harnr Arabs. The population of Darfur is of very varied origin. The Fur occupy the central highlands and part of the Dar Dima and Dar Uma districts, speak a special language, and are subdivided into numerous tribes, of which the most influential are the Dugunga, the Kanjara, and the Kera. They are of middle height, have rather irregular features, and display a disagreeable character. Dr Nachtigal found them proud, treacherous, and very ill-disposed to strangers; but it must be remembered that he had to encounter not only the religious antipathy of Mahometan bigotry against a Christian, but also the political antipathy of irritated national feeling against a supposed Egyptian. The Mas- sabdt are a tribe which, breaking off from the Fur some centuries back, are now largely mingled with Arab blood, and use the Arabic language; while, on the contrary, the Tunjur are an Arab tribe which must have arrived in the Soudan at a very early date, as it has incorporated a large Furian element, and no longer professes Mahometanism. The Dadjo formerly inhabited Mount Marra, but they have been driven to the south and west, where they maintain a certain independence in Dar Sula, but are treated as inferiors by the Fur. The Zoghaiva, who inhabit the northern borders, are on the contrary regarded by the Fur as their equals, and have all the prestige of a race that at one time made its influence felt as far as Bornu. As holding a less important place in the popula tion may be mentioned the Berti, the Birgirid, the Beraunas, the Fellatas, the Jellabas, and immigrants from Wadai, Baghirmi, &c. Genuine Arab tribes are numerous, and. they are partly nomadic and partly fixed. The country was divided under the &quot; Sultan &quot; into the five provinces of Dar Tokonavi or the northern province, Dar Dali or the eastern, Dar Uma or the southern, Dar Dima or the south-western, and Dar el Gharb or the western, each governed by a separate chief with the exception of the last, which stood directly under the authority of the king. Each province was subdivided into so many departments, and each department was under the control of a shertaya (plural, sherati). The central district of the Marra Mountains, called Dar Torra, was under a special shertaya, dependent on the king ; and the western slopes, which form the most fertile tract in the whole country, belonged to the king and the members of the royal family. The most important towns are Kobe and Kabkabia, on the caravan-route across the north of the country.

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1em 1em  DARIEN, a district of South America, of special interest in the history of geographical discovery, which gives its name to the great inlet of the Colombian coast otherwise known as the Gulf of Uraba, and to the great neck of land more familiarly designated the Isthmus of Panama. It was first reconnoitred in the by Rodrigo Bastidas of Seville; and the first settlement was Santa Maria del Antigua, situated on the small Darien river, north-west of the mouth of the Atrato. In Vasco Nunez Balboa stood “silent upon a peak in Darien,” and saw the Pacific at his feet stretching inland in the Gulf of San Miguel ; and ever since that date this narrow stretch of terra-firma has alternately seemed to prof fer and refuse a means of transit between the two oceans. The first serious attempt to turn the isthmus to permanent account as a trade-route dates from the beginning of the 18th century, and forms an interesting chapter in Scottish history. In 1695 an Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament for a company trading to Africa and the Indies ; and this company, under the advice of one of the most re markable economists of the period, William Paterson, a Scotchman, and the founder of the Bank of England, determined to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Darien as a general emporium for the commerce of all the nations of the world. The project was taken up in Scotland with the enthusiasm of national rivalry towards England, and 