482 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 



definite point of view may be confused, for instance, 

 with those of physical laziness. These moral disquali- 

 fications are naturally less difficult to deal with than a 

 deep-seated fatalism which springs from perverted 

 religious conceptions, but even as regards religious 

 fatalism it is arguable that this attitude of mind is not 

 intuitive but the accummulated effect of experience and 

 environment. 



The constant disillusionment which follows upon the 

 practice of inefficient methods of production, in circum- 

 stances that have involved risk to life and property since 

 time immemorial, must necessarily produce a fatalistic 

 type of mind, and it does not seem too much to infer 

 that the substitution of practice based upon scientifically 

 ascertained facts must in time act as a mental and moral 

 corrective, for the simple reason that it will probably give 

 the labourer satisfactory results, whereas his old rule-of- 

 thumb regime frequently failed to do so. 



Possibly a new period is beginning in which the culti- 

 vator's mind will be analysed as carefully and methodi- 

 cally as the soil on which he is persuaded to grow crops 

 by up-to-date processes for European markets. 



From these general observations and the fact that the 

 Sudan is essentially an agricultural and pastoral country 

 it is clear that immense importance attaches to the work 

 of those concerned with scientific investigations, in 

 condensing the results of their labours into simple rules 

 for the guidance of the cultivator. Equally vital is the 

 need for the spread of a system of elementary vernacular 

 education, which will eventually enable the pioneers of 

 enlightened methods to carry with them the sympathies 

 of the cultivating population. 



Satisfactory advance has been made in both these 

 directions. 



A country confronted with financial and economic 

 difficulties such as those which the Sudan has had to face, 

 has necessarily been primarily concerned with that side of 

 scientific and technical work which is most likely to lead 

 to immediate practical results. Circumstances have 

 demanded, as a preliminary step, a rough scientific recon- 

 naissance, designed to discover the most profitable lines 

 of progress possible with the simple apparatus available. 



