350 SAVAGE SUDAN 



aflame with the spikes of red-hot poker, yellow acacia, 

 and golden-blossomed yuccas, with many a flower un- 

 known. Some of these khors resembled "streets" of 

 brilliant colour-relief amid the forbidding desolation on 

 either side. Another feature of Sarrowit was the 

 fantastic jebels that studded this highland plain, some of 

 them composed of giant monoliths piled in such fashion 

 as apparently to outrage the laws of gravity. 



It was here that we encountered the Ariel a game- 

 animal as fascinating in form and figure as hunter can 

 hope to meet. Its favourite haunts were the mountain- 

 faces which, in dark shaly terraces, encircled the plateau, 

 or upon the intervening foothills. 



As each dawn broke herds of ariel grazed within sight 

 of our camp and amazingly conspicuous they were. In 

 colour the ariel is extremely pale. Quite one-half of his 

 person is, in fact, snowy-white ; while the rest is of lightest 

 fawn, almost straw-colour. Thus, on the dark iron-stone 

 tracts, the ariel-herds stand out most conspicuous objects, 

 challenging attention at a couple of miles. Naturally, 

 when feeding in the sandy khors, their pale colour har- 

 monises better with the surroundings there, in the glare 

 of an African noontide both animal and environment 

 oft share a hue of "liquid sunlight." 



So powerful a factor is sunlight that even the gaunt 

 black areas of quartz and ironstone rock (together with 

 any ariel upon them) may partake equally of the false 

 colour, intensified by mirage and the dancing heat-haze. 

 A further deception is superadded by the thousand tufts 

 of dothering-grass aforesaid (Hordeum\ which lend a 

 quivering motion to the solid earth and increase the 

 optical illusion. 



During the hot noontide ariel lie down to rest, and 

 one sees the harsh black stone-beds studded with yellow 

 patches. These are spots from which the animals have 

 scraped away the surface-stones, so as to rest upon the 

 soft sand beneath. Their "siestas" the ariel select with 



