[72] Seebehr’s name at full length was Seebehr-Rahama-Gyimme-Abel.
[73] Ferteet is the term by which the Foorians and Baggara distinguish the Kredy tribes as a nation from the Niam-niam. In a wider sense the term is applied to all the heathen nations to the south of Darfoor. In the Soudan the guinea-worm is also called Ferteet, probably because the heathen negroes act especially liable to its attacks.
[74] There is much uncertainty about the exact geographical position of these famous mines. The accounts differ widely, so that I can only approximately determine the precise situation. According to Brown, Hofrat is twenty-three and a half days’ journey from Kobbeh, the capital of Darfoor, whilst according to Barth it is only eight good days’ march from Tendelti, which is a day’s journey from Kobbeh. I should imagine that it probably lies a little to the west of the position that I have assigned it in my map: of one thing I am certain—it lies to the west of the roads to Darfoor.
CHAPTER XXII.
Underwood of Cycadeæ. Peculiar mills of the Kredy. Wanderings in the wilderness. Crossing the Beery. Inhospitable reception at Mangoor. Numerous brooks. Huge emporium of slave-trade. Highest point of my travels. Western limit. Gallery-woods near Dehm Gudyoo. Scorbutic attack. Dreams and their fulfilment. Courtesy of Yumma. Remnants of ancient mountain ridges. Upper course of the Pongo. Information about the far west. Great river of Dar Aboo Dinga. Barth’s investigations. Primogeniture of the Bahr-el-Arab. First giving of the weather. Elephant-hunters from Darfoor. The Sehre. Wild game around Dehm Adlan. Cultivated plants of the Sehre. Magic tuber. Deficiency of water. A night without a roof. Irrepressible good spirits of the Sehre. Lower level of the land. A miniature mountain-range. Norway-rats. Gigantic fig-tree in Moody. The “evil eye.” Little steppe-burning. Return to Khalil’s quarters.
As time elapsed, and I considered the life that I was leading, I could not help thinking that there was something in the lines of the Russian poet that was not altogether inappropriate to myself:—
“Two years had passed; the gypsies still
Their frank and lawless lives fulfil;
From heath to heath they push, nor stay,
But find new quarters every day,