lo SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



kudu, oryx, and numerous species of gazelle — pets of 

 the mess. 



I must not forget to mention the well, which was 

 the best in the town, and at which I used to spend 

 hours on camel-watering days. Opposite to the tower 

 to the east, and a few hundred yards from it, were the 

 barracks, hospital, and stores, built of red brick. They 

 were occupied by the 12th Sudanese (under Captain 

 Massey, Royal Irish Regiment), at the time perhaps the 

 finest, because the best disciplined, battalion of blacks. 



Just south of the compound was the great fula 

 (reservoir), 150 by 90 yards. It is said to have 

 been made by generations of brick-makers, who took 

 their clay then, as now, from it. In the rains it was 

 our watering-place. Near it was a solitary palm, the 

 only one spared by the dervishes. The saying was 

 that it represented the Government, and that when it 

 died, so would the British raj. When the Mahdi of 

 1904 was gathering his adherents one of them cut off 

 the top — but without effect. 



Just beside it was enacted a little farce well worth 

 telling. A policeman, armed with a Remington and 

 native-made ammunition, had reason to wish to fire at 

 a runaway prisoner, one of a gang of manacled felons. 

 Cartridge after cartridge misfired. When the re- 

 mainder of the gang saw this, their indignation at 

 the runaway changed to emulation, and the ten of 

 them set upon the policeman — I obviously cannot 

 say they disarmed him — and trussing him up, to 

 wrench himself free some hours later, escaped. 



About a mile or more from the Government build- 



