Tobacco Grows To An Extraordinary Size, And Is
Prepared Similarly To That Of The Ellyria Tribe.
When ripe, the leaves are pounded in a mortar and reduced to a pulp; the
mass is then placed in a conical mould of wood, and pressed.
It remains
in this until dry, when it presents the shape of a loaf of sugar, and is
perfectly hard. The tobacco of the Ellyria tribe is shaped into cheeses,
and frequently adulterated with cowdung. I had never smoked until my
arrival in Obbo, but having suffered much from fever, and the country
being excessively damp, I commenced with Obbo pipes and tobacco.
Every tribe has a distinct pattern of pipe; those of the Bari have wide
trumpet-shaped mouths; the Latooka are long and narrow; and the Obbo
smaller and the neatest. All their pottery is badly burned, and
excessively fragile if wet. The water jars are well formed, although the
potter's wheel is quite unknown, and the circular form is obtained
entirely by the hand. Throughout the tribes of the White Nile, the
articles of pottery are limited to the tobacco-pipe and the water-jar:
all other utensils are formed either of wood, or of gourd shells.
By observation, 1 determined the latitude of my camp at Obbo to be 4
degrees 02' N., 32 degrees 31' long. E., and the general elevation of
the country 3,674 feet above the sea, the temperature about 76 degrees
F. The altitude of Latooka was 2,236 feet above the sea level: thus we
were, at Obbo, upon an elevated plateau, 1,438 feet above the general
level of the country on the east of the mountain range. The climate
would be healthy were the country sufficiently populated to war
successfully against nature; but the rainfall continuing during ten
months of the year, from February to the end of November, and the soil
being extremely fertile, the increase of vegetation is too rapid, and
the scanty population are hemmed in and overpowered by superabundant
herbage. This mass of foliage, and grasses of ten feet in height
interwoven with creeping plants and wild grape-vines, is perfectly
impenetrable to man, and forms a vast jungle, inhabited by elephants,
rhinoceros, and buffaloes, whose ponderous strength alone can overcome
it. There are few antelopes, as those animals dislike the grass jungles,
in which they have no protection against the lion or the leopard, as
such beasts of prey can approach them unseen. In the month of January
the grass is sufficiently dry to burn, but even at that period there is
a quantity of fresh green grass growing between the withered stems; thus
the firing of the prairies does not absolutely clear the country, but
merely consumes the dry matter, and leaves a ruin of charred herbage,
rendered so tough by the burning, that it is quite impossible to ride
without cutting the skin from the horse's shins and shoulders.
Altogether, it is a most uninteresting country, as there is no
possibility of traversing it except by the narrow footpaths made by the
natives.
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