312 SAVAGE SUDAN 



The period of the flood-season on this hill-born 

 stream being ' a month earlier than that of White 

 Nile, the Blue River falls in earlier in autumn, and 

 by November navigation has ceased. The new railway, 

 however (Khartoum - Sennar - Kordofan), carries one 

 235 miles south to Sennar in a twelve-hours' run. We 

 reached Sennar after dark, and slept in the straw-thatched 

 shanty that does duty for a "station hotel" I remember 

 that night ; for, lying awake, a big beast with cocked 

 ears that might have been a hyena or a brontosaurus 

 suddenly stood in the bright moonlight within our 

 open doorway. A shooting-boot was the nearest 

 available missile and the turmoil it created awoke my 

 companions, who thought I was afflicted with nightmare 

 but they had not seen the apparition. Of course, it 

 was only a pariah dog on the prowl ; but I resent such 

 intrusion in the small hours. Next morning with far 

 less trouble than a portentous document in Arabic 

 would seem to imply we fixed up a contract for camelry 

 with the local sheikh and set forth on the ride to 

 Singa, 50 miles south. 



The country traversed was all flat plain to the 

 eastward (across the river) lay continuous forest ; on our 

 side, all cultivation, and densely populated by Arab tribes 

 whose wealth in cattle was surprising. Each morning 

 as we rode forward, the country was enveloped in clouds 

 of rolling dust emanating from countless droves coming 

 down from the arid interior to water at the river. The 

 land seemed amove and, since we were told that these 

 herds only drank every second day, the total aggregate 

 must be double what one sees. 



Such detail may seem irrelevant to the scope of this 

 book ; but nowadays almost everywhere one must pass 

 through an intermediate zone of semi-development or 

 tentative development ere reaching the "unspoilt wilder- 

 ness" beyond. And even in this otherwise uninspiring 

 region we enjoyed two striking object-lessons in bird-life. 



