354 SAVAGE SUDAN 



gamic evolved (so it seemed) solely from moisture alone. 

 Is it possible that that film suffices to provide both food 

 and drink to specialised creatures? So strong blew the 

 moisture-laden breeze all day that if any light article 

 say a sponge were carelessly laid down, it would only 

 be recovered (if at all) after a race of a hundred 

 yards ! 



The supply of moisture provided by a breeze may 

 suffice for the needs of gazelle and other non-bibulous 

 beasts, but is no sort of use for thirsty hunters, and our 

 water-supply proved a ceaseless scourge. Its sources lay 

 a double day's journey distant, and for its transport 

 hither we were dependent on Hadendowa camel-drivers ; 

 and these Hadendowas the same formidable "Fuzzies" 

 who in 1884 broke our squares at Teb and Tamai and 

 who, under Osman Digna, ambushed the 2ist Lancers at 

 Omdurman are in peace-time the most sullen and in- 

 competent of savages. I write this with equal sorrow 

 and conviction ; for, wherever I have travelled in Africa, 

 I have ever got on the best of terms with the local 

 native. But between me and a Hadendowa (though 

 fellow-subjects) there has never existed, nor ever will, a 

 single scrap of human sympathy. The tribe are reputed 

 expert camel-men, and their standard of intelligence tallies 

 with that of their evil beast with its "sculptured sneer." 

 Stolid and apathetic, they are incapable of graceful 

 sentiment, and one's best efforts towards friendship elicit 

 no spark of reciprocity. 



In curious contrast stands the fact that from all the 

 other Arab tribes among whom we sojourned including 

 the notorious Baggara we met with marked courtesy 

 and friendship. 



One extraneous point should be stated in favour of 

 the Hadendowas. Physically they are among the finest 

 of the Arab tribes big, broad-built men with splendid 

 muscular development. 



So short at times was the water-supply that one 



