Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



rate Greek traders, all mixed up with the carpen- 

 ters' quarter, a small Indian bazaar, and the 

 curiosity shops. 



The Greek is ubiquitous throughout the length 

 and breadth of the Sudan, and is worth his 

 weight in gold in the shopkeeping line. They 

 tell me that in Kitchener's march up the river to 

 fiorht the battle, almost as soon as the advance 

 guard of the army arrived at its new camp in 

 the evening, there was the humble store of the 

 Greek awaiting them provided with all the kinds 

 of odds and ends necessary and dear to the sol- 

 dier's heart. 



An excellent rule, in actual working order in 

 Omdurman, is that all mud houses along what are 

 destined to be the main thoroughfares of the 

 town, have to be knocked down ; and the owner 

 is compelled by the terms of his lease to build a 

 stone one in its place, on pain of cancellation of 

 that document. The idea is going like wildfire, 

 so that in as short a time as sufficed for the res- 

 surrection of Khartoum from a heap of ruined 

 debris, we shall be unable to recognize the 

 Omdurman of yore. 



There is a brigade — three battalions — of Su- 

 danese troops quartered here ; it was delightful 

 to see their beautifully ugly faces. Black and 

 stolid, they form part of the seasoned and splen- 

 did fighting men of the Egyptian army. The 

 9th, loth, and 14th Sudanese were in Omdurman; 



