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People and Costumes of the Soudan

LARGE territory in and the valley, surrounded by abrupt Central Africa is slopes, basks in a green luxuriance of called the Soudan. woods, thickets and grass. Like all those One of its principal which succeed it, this valley is capable of cities is Khartoum. producing not only millet, but also wheat, It was here that grapes, dates and nearly all kinds of General Gordon, vegetables; it is said to enclose fifty garthe celebrated dens around one village. Barth records "Chinese Gordon," that this was, he believed, the most lost his life. He had been in southerly place in Africa, north of the China in the service of the equator, where the plow was still in use. English Government, and In all Negroland this useful implement is had there gained great dis- replaced by the hoe. From this terrestinction. Afterward he was trial paradise we reached at last the stony made Governor of the Soudan, plateau on which is built the city of and devoted all his energies Agades on the frontiers of the Soudan. to the task of suppressing the The sky was pure, and the city with its lawlessness and mob rule by which the various dwellings, its green pastures tracountry was cursed. He was a bold, versed by horses, camels, donkeys and courageous, resolute man, of great purity goats, its ponds covered with water-plants, of character, self-reliance and firmness. its magnificent trees and its population in It was but natural that he should be dis- the most diverse costumes, from the scanty liked by slave-traders and robbers. He apron of the slave to the floating draperies was first made prisoner, and afterward of the Arab, formed a picture animated assassinated, suffering a heroic death in by a world complete in itself-entirely the service of his country.

A traveller in the Soudan gives us the following description of the country and some of the towns and people: different from any other country. Here is a row of magazines filled with merchandise, both foreign and domestic, the buyers and the sellers, of all shades, who The tropical vegetation grew so thickly endeavor each to gain the utmost possible, that the camels could with difficulty force and to deceive his neighbor; down there, their way through, but once this luxuri- some open places where are huddled ance passed the route led over a pebbly together half-naked slaves dying with plain covered with a thicket of mimosas, hunger, and whose despairing regards in which were to be discovered the fre- seek to discover the master to whom they quent trail of lions, very numerous in are to be delivered. Elsewhere, everythese waste places, but not very ferocious. thing that is necessary to life; the rich Finally we passed into the celebrated possessing themselves of all that is most valley of Auderas, where the sky is pure, dainty, the poor stooping with greedy " X MILDIDRAND of Pief Wine (197) looks over a handful of grain. Then a On an uncovered spot is a dyeing estab high dignitary, mounted on a blooded lishment with its numerous workmen; horse, brilliantly caparisoned, followed by two paces farther on, a blacksmith finishinsolent attendants, brushes against a ing a blade, the edge of which would surpoor blind man in peril at each step of prise the stranger who mocks at the being trodden under foot.

In this street is a charming cottage, at the bottom of a court surrounded by a palisade of roses; a date palm protects "CHINESE" GORDON. clumsy tools; in a little unfrequented street, some women spreading skeins of cotton on a hedge.

Africa is a great, wild, almost unknown continent, which has been a land of mystery until very recently, and would be still, except for the explorations of such heroes as Stanley, Livingstone, Baker and others. We have heard of darkskinned savages, huge elephants, hippopotami, rhinoceroses, lions and monkeys, and vast forests and deserts, gloomy and unattractive.

We are learning a great deal about Africa, and before many years some parts of the Dark Continent will be so changed that a traveller can visit them with comparative ease and comfort. He will not be chased by lions, nor have to climb trees to get away from mad buffaloes.

There will be railroads, churches, schools, fine farms and towns, and the light of civilization will shine in what this retreat against the heat of the day; is now the darkest spot on earth. the mistress of the house, clad in a black It is not too much to suppose that even robe gathered around the waist, her hair the immense Congo forest will yet yielć carefully dressed, is spinning cotton, to the onward march of civilization. In watching with a careful eye the while the this forest Mr. Stanley encountered his grinding of the millet; the children, naked most terrible hardships in his last jourand happy, roll in the sand or run in pur- ney. He says: "Take a thick Scottish suit of a goat; in the interior, the earthen copse, dripping with rain; imagine this vases, the wooden bowls, shining with copse to be a mere undergrowth, nourcleanliness, are ranged carefully in a row. ished under the impenetrable shades of ancient trees, ranging from one hundred to aborigines, with terribly sharp spears, one hundred and eighty feet high; briers standing poised, still as dead stumps; rain and thorns abundant; lazy creeks, mean- pattering down on you every other day dering through the depths of the jungle, in the year; an impure atmosphere, with and sometimes a deep affluent of a great its dread consequences, fever and dysenriver. tery; gloom throughout the day, and "Imagine this forest and jungle in all darkness almost palpable throughout the stages of decay and growth-old trees night; and then, if you will imagine such falling, leaning perilously over, fallen a forest extending over an area more prostrate; ants and insects of all kinds, than twice as great as that of the States sizes, and colors, murmuring around; of Pennsylvania and New York, you monkeys and chimpanzees above, queer have some idea of the perils that noises of birds and animals, crashes in beset us." the jungle as troops of elephants rush This vast, dense forest will some day away; dwarfs with poisoned arrows se- yield to the woodman's axe, and will curely hidden behind some buttress or in be clothed with harvests and summer some dark recess; strong brown-bodied beauty.