Introduction

In the Sudan, Dar Fung, lying between the White and Blue Niles, consists in general “ of a flat open plain diversified by rocky hills. In the wet season the plain is covered with vegetation; in the dry season water is scarce, water holes are far apart.” 1 The inhabitants of Dar Fung live on these hills, the people being often known by the names of the hills they live on. Towards the Sudan-Ethiopian frontier, the land rises and becomes more generally hilly. In northern Dar Fung rivers are few, but in the south the Ahmar, Tombak, Yabus, Jokau and others flow westwards, and the Baro is a tributary of the Sobat; the Dabus flows north into the Blue Nile. In south-west Ethiopia, the area is bounded roughly by the Rift Valley, here occupied by a chain of Lakes-Rudolf, Stephanie, Camo, Abaya (Margherita), Awasa, Zeway and others-and is traversed by the great rivers Omo and Gojeb. This, the Sidama country, is a mountainous and broken region, with patches of forest, stark bare uplands, plains, and valleys. As it descends from the Sidama country to Lake Rudolf, the terrain becomes less fertile, and round Lakes Rudolf and Stephanie there is much barren country. Lake Stephanie, which was full of water 50 years ago, is now dry mud.2