THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 33 



and as his relations are extending every year, he 

 told me that he should soon require at least five 

 fresh interpreters. To illustrate the necessity of this, 

 he told me that an elephant is called altou by the 

 Kilches, kedde by the Djours, and so on. Yet all 

 these tribes have one word for the serpent, and that 

 is python, the coincidence with the Greek being 

 somewhat singular. 



" c A short time ago five hundred blacks came with 

 M. de Malzac from his station to the banks of the 

 Kile, carrying on their backs a cargo of elephant 

 tusks which lie was bringing down to Khartoum. 

 This journey lasted a week, and the men passed over 

 marshy land which beasts of burden could not have 

 traversed. M. de Malzac had informed his men 

 before he engaged them that as his stock of glass and 

 trinkets was exhausted he could only pay them on 

 his return. But this did not prevent them coming 

 down to the river with their heavy load, and from 

 returning home full of confidence in his promise. 



"'A fact like this shows that the inhabitants of 

 these countries are not by nature hostile to stran- 

 gers. Most of the tragedies which have recently 

 occurred are due to the greediness and, in some cases, 

 to the actual cruelty of certain traders. 



" 'The Ntibor, called in the Soudan the "Bahr-el- 

 Gazal (Stream of Gazelles), is not, according to MM. 

 Malzac and Veyssieres, the principal part of the Nile, 

 but only one of its affluents, and perhaps the most 



