362 



SAVAGE SUDAN 



then confronted us, I never remember to have seen. 

 Inert and statuesque among lustrous rocks, stood scores 

 and scores of wild animals phantom figures blending 

 like spectres into their background and seeming to share 

 its hues, or at most but a half-shade lighter. So far as 

 they were visible at all, these ariel appeared but as 



ARIEL. 



silhouetted outlines, shadowy and unreal as simulacra. 

 We felt as though we saw right through them. 



For a realistic glimpse of the scene I am here hope- 

 lessly attempting to describe in cold print, see Millais' 

 beautiful drawing of springbok on South- African veld- 

 (A Breath from the Veld, p. 26). The circumstances 

 are totally different but the effect is analogous. 



Considering how extremely wild we had hitherto found 



