EL OBEID 9 



last his small force, are supposed to haunt it. Though 

 I occupied the room till the cracks in the tower were 

 supposed to render it unsafe, I never saw the spooks, 

 nor did I see the other two El Obeid can boast. 

 Under the archway was the guard over the treasury. 

 At one time the want of safes was so great that am- 

 munition boxes were requisitioned to store the money. 

 The mild Egyptian fellah of a regiment on duty 

 discovered that wood and even tin lining can be cut 

 into, and, like the destructive "sus," which eats away 

 the heart of timber while leaving the outside apparently 

 intact, they used to tickle for 20 piastre (4s.) pieces 

 through a small hole in the bottom of the box, collect- 

 ing a fine sum till the usual quarrel among thieves led 

 to their detection. Inside, as I said before, were the 

 offices and officers' houses. The former were of red 

 brick, which, unfortunately, was made, of necessity, of 

 a bad clay which absorbed moisture and cracked. The 

 latter, with the exception of a few for the senior 

 officials, were very ramshackle. Some were mere 

 native huts nine feet in diameter. The officers com- 

 manding the Camel Corps and Sudanese regiment had 

 built themselves green brick huts, with doorways 

 through which one could walk erect ! One small 

 substantial building was the old treasury, now haunted 

 by the clerk who was cut to pieces in it by the 

 Mahdists. It was, by the way, the best house I ever 

 occupied during my service in the Sudan. There was 

 a stairway to the roof, on which I spent many a 

 pleasant night. I remember remarking that from my 

 bed one morning I could see lions, panthers, cheetahs. 



