CHAPTER XXXI 



THE NORTHERN GATEWAY OF SUDAN 

 KHARTOUM TO EGYPT 



SUDAN lies desert-beset. From no direction is there 

 access save across loo-league deserts unless, indeed, 

 the traveller approaches, as by a back-door, from Central 

 Africa and the Equator. 



The Eastern Gateway (Chapter II.), as a study in 

 desolation, was striking enough in places even appal- 

 ling- but the approach by way of Egypt easily sur- 

 passes it. No single day's journey within my experience 

 ever impelled sensations such as did this one the 

 Northern Gateway of Sudan. 



" A region of emptiness, howling and drear, 

 Which man hath abandon'd from famine and fear ; 

 Which the snake and the lizard inhabit alone, 

 With the twilight bat from the hollowed stone ; 

 Where grass, nor herb, nor shrub takes root, 

 Save poisonous thorns that pierce the foot ; 

 A region of drought where no river glides, 

 Nor rippling brook with ozier'd sides, 

 Where reed-girt pool nor mossy fountain, 

 Nor shady tree, nor cloud-capt mountain 

 Is found to refresh the aching eye. 

 But the barren earth and the burning sky, 

 And the blank horizon round and round, 

 Without a living sight or sound, 

 Tell to the heart in its pensive mood 

 That this is Nature's solitude. 



A ' still small voice ' comes through the wild, 

 (Like a father consoling his fretful child) 

 Which banishes bitterness, wrath, and fear, 

 Saying 'Man is Distant, but God is Near'" 



[PRINGLE.] 



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