necessary, as he dreads the difficulties that broad acres of waving
crops would entail upon his family. The bona fide tax is a bagatelle to
the amounts squeezed from him by the extortionate soldiery, who are the
agents employed by the sheik; these must have their share of the
plunder, in excess of the amount to be delivered to their employer; he
also must have his plunder before he parts with the bags of dollars to
the governor of the province. Thus the unfortunate cultivator is ground
down. Should he refuse to pay the necessary "backsheesh" or present to
the tax-collectors, some false charge is trumped up against him, and he
is thrown into prison. As a green field is an attraction to a flight of
locusts in their desolating voyage, so is a luxuriant farm in the Soudan
a point for the tax-collectors of Upper Egypt. I have frequently ridden
several days' journey through a succession of empty villages, deserted
by the inhabitants upon the report of the soldiers' approach. The women
and children, goats and cattle, camels and asses, had all been removed
into the wilderness for refuge, while their crops of corn had been left
standing for the plunderers, who would be too idle to reap and thrash
the grain.

Notwithstanding the miserable that fetters the steps of improvement,
Nature has bestowed such great capabilities of production in the fertile
soil of this country that the yield of a small surface is more than
sufficient for the requirements of the population, and actual poverty is
unknown. The average price of dhurra is fifteen piastres per "rachel,"
or about 3s. 2d. for five hundred pounds upon the spot where it is
grown. The dhurra (Sorghum andropogon) is the grain most commonly used
throughout the Soudan; there are great varieties of this plant, of which
the most common are the white and the red. The land is not only favored
by Nature by its fertility, but the intense heat of the summer is the
laborer's great assistant. As before described, all vegetation entirely