TRAVEL IN THE EASTERN SUDAN 23 



with a flat tin one, which lasted through the whole 

 of my trip, having cost in Souakin about 2s. to 

 commence with. The Elliot bed was, of course, 

 provided with a mosquito-net and poles. Usually 

 these were not required at all, but sometimes I 

 needed them very badly indeed, and if a net exists 

 which will exclude sand-flies, without suffocating the 

 traveller, I recommend that it be purchased, for in 

 the Eastern Sudan I found sand-flies far more trying 

 than mosquitoes. 



My lighting apparatus, apart from an electric 

 battery, of which more anon, consisted of three 

 Hinks's hurricane-proof lanterns, two candle-lanterns, 

 and a supply of kerosene and candles. Kerosene of 

 good quality can be purchased at all large towns 

 in the interior, and on dark nights I usually illumin- 

 ated my zareba, as a protection against wild animals. 

 Many travellers substitute wood fires, but I did not 

 consider the expenditure worth saving. A zareba, I 

 may here mention, is a stout thorn-hedge, calculated 

 not so much to keep the lions, leopards, and hyaenas 

 out, as to keep the camels, goats, and donkeys in, 

 when not one in a hundred of the former is likely to be 

 so bold as to venture upon an attack, though the 

 tracks in the early morning show often enough that 

 such an attack has been meditated. The candles are 

 merely to supplement the stock of kerosene in case 

 of accident. 



