Khartoum and Omdurman 



Last, but not least, each garden has its lawn of 

 good English grass, kept smooth and short and 

 tidy. Water is laid on from the Nile ; every 

 house has its miniature system of canals and 

 watercourses connecting it with the " sakia," or 

 native water-wheel — a large, clumsy, creaking 

 apparatus, continually winding up an endless 

 chain with little buckets attached ; the whole thing 

 turned by a bullock, who wanders round in a 

 perpetual circle pulling up his buckets — which 

 tip themselves into a trough as they appear one 

 by one — slowly but surely, usually with his 

 attendant boy fast asleep on his yoke. 



Khartoum is in reality the seat of the Govern- 

 ment, whilst all the trade in the country passes 

 through Omdurman. The War Office, the Post 

 Office, and the Gordon College are all in Khar- 

 toum, facing the river, whilst behind them are the 

 European shops, owned and run by Greeks for 

 the most part — that is to say, all the good ones 

 are. The town is, I believe, laid out in the 

 pattern of a Union Jack, all main roads leading 

 to Gordon's Statue, which stands up well outlined 

 against an Eastern sunset. The " man on the 

 camel" is well calculated to impress the Arab mind. 



The town has sprung up wonderfully in the 

 short time it has been growing, but that is chiefly 

 due to good land laws and the system of leases, 

 as well as to the enterprise of the Greek trader. 

 The Sudan without a Greek would be like bread 



123 



