i8 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



the same evening. To be able to go anywhere at a 

 moment's notice was to be the motto of the Hagana, 

 and we compHed with it. Before the rains Colonel 

 Wilkinson left on leave, and on his way back was 

 made Governor of a province. No greater loss could 

 have been inflicted on the new Camel Corps. He 

 was the originator of the new system which he 

 left while still in embryo. But the Sudan was young 

 and needed its experienced officers for its important 

 posts. 



The compendium of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, by 

 Count Gleichen, gives one the best available informa- 

 tion on the country ; but, in order to enable my 

 reader to follow my narrative, I have to take a few 

 notes from it descriptive of this part of the country : 

 "North of the 14° N. latitude the bush thins till 

 it merges into the arid desert. South of 11° N. 

 comes forest. Between the two is thorn-bush. The 

 Nuba hills are inhabited by a distinct Berberine race, 

 while the rest of the inhabitants of Kordofan are 

 camel, horse, cattle, or non-nomadic agricultural 

 Arabs. Water is got principally from wells, some of 

 which are very deep. They fill and dry up in cycles 

 in a most extraordinary way, e.g. Nahud at one time 

 was a watering-place for thousands of camels ; now a 

 score taxes its supply. Where there are no wells the 

 women will walk nightly all through the dry weather 

 to places twenty miles or more away to fetch it. 

 Where there are tibeldi (baobab = /I t/fMsowm digitata) 

 trees their hollow trunks are used as water-butts. The 

 country is undulating, mostly covered with thick gum- 



