The climate, except in the south, where the rains are unusually heavy and the soil is a damp clay, is regarded as healthy. The rainy season lasts for three months, from the middle of June to the middle of September. In the neighbourhood of the wadis the vegetation is fairly rich, but elsewhere it is rather scant and steppe-like. The prevailing trees are the acacias—more particularly the hazara and the Acacia nilotica— the hachub, the sayal, the kittir, the hommed, the jakjak, and the makhit; while the sycamore, the ochar, the hadjlidj, and, in the Marra Mountains, the Euphorbia candelabrum are also to be found. In the highlands the culture of wheat, elsewhere so rare in Central Africa, is pretty extensive; but doukhn (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 indigenous 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 Hamr 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, aud 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 Zogliawa, 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 population may be mentioned the Berti, the Birgirid, the Beraunas, the Fellatas, the Jellabas, and immigrants from Wadai, Baghirmi, <fcc. Genuine Arab tribes are numerous, and. they are partly nomadic and partly fixed. The country was divided under the “Sultan” 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.

History. —Of the Dadjo dynasty, which appears to have been dominant in the Marra mountains, no history has been left except a list of royal names. Next succeeded the Tunjur dynasty— Ahmed-el-Magur, Saref, Kuni, Bate, Rufa’a, and Shaou. From the marriage of Rufa’a with the daughter of the chief of the Kera tribe sprang Dali or Dalil, who founded the Furian kingdom, divided the country into provinces, and established a penal code, which, under the nitle of Kitab Dali or Dali’s Book, is still preserved, and shows principles essentially different from those of the Koran. His grandson Soleiman (usually distinguished by the Furian epithet Solon, the Arab or the Red) reigned from 1596 to 1637, and was a great warrior and a devoted Mussulman. Soleiman’s grandson Ahmed Bokr (1682-1722) made Islam the religion of the state, and increased the prosperity of the country by encouraging immigration from Bornu and Baghirmi. His rule extended as far east as the Nile, or even to the banks of the Atbara. The next occupant of the throne, Daura or Darut, is infamous for his cruelty; and the capture of liis successor Omer Lele during a war with Wadai saved the country from an equally detestable tyrant. Abu-el-Ghassem, the next monarch, was lost in a battle against the same enemy, and when after a time he reappeared amongst his people, he was put to death by Mohammed Tirab, who had meanwhile ascended the throne. Abd-er-Rahman, surnamed el-Raschid or the Just, a poor priest of great learning and piety, was chosen king instead of Tirab’s son Ishaga, and though revengeful and fond of intrigue, he proved himself on the whole not unworthy of the choice. It was during his reign that Napoleon was campaigning in Egypt; and the European potentate responded in 1799 to the congratulatory address of his barbarian ally by an order for the despatch of 2000 black slaves upwards of 16 years old, strong and vigorous. To Abd-er-Rahman likewise is due the present situation of the Fasher, or royal township, near the Rabat (or Lake) Tendelti. Mahommed-el-Fadhl, his son, was for some time under the control of an energetic eunuch, Maliommed Kurin; but he ultimately made himself independent, and his reign lasted till 1839, when he died of leprosy, leaving behind him the fame of a violent and blood-thirsty tyrant, who had been disgraced by the loss of the important province of Kordofan. Of his 40 sons the third, Mahommed Hassin, was appointed his successor. He is described as a religious but avaricious man. The chief events of his reign were his fourteen expeditions against the Razagat Arabs, the whole result of which was that the last years of his life were spent in fairly peaceful terms with that restless tribe. He died in 1873, blind and advanced in years, and the succession passed to his youngest son Brahim, who soon found himself engaged in a conflict with Egypt, which resulted in the destruction of the kingdom. He was slain in the battle of Menovatchi, in the autumn of 1874, and his uncle Hassab Alla, who sought to maintain himself, was captured in 1875 by the troops of the Khedive, and removed to Cairo with his family.

Exploration.— The first European traveller who visited Darfur was James Browne, who spent two years at Kobeyh or Cobbe, at that time the capital. The next addition to our knowledge was due to the Sheikh Mahommed-el-Tounsy, who travelled in 1803 through the north of Africa in search of Omar, his father, and afterwards gave to the world an account of his wanderings, which was translated into French in 1845 by M. Perron. Dr Nachtigal in 1873 spent some months at Tendelti; and since the incorporation with Egypt, the country has been reconnoitred by Purdy and other Egyptian generals.

See Count D’Escayrac de Lautnre, Notice tur le Darfur, 1859; Nachtigal'a communications to the Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic, March 187<>, and to Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1875; Behm's Geographisches Jahrbuch, 1876.