26 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



at a run, shaking their weapons over the heads of 

 our line ; Tagoi's men returning the compliment. All 

 the while a weird dervish hymn was sung, punctuated 

 here and there by the stamp of a thousand feet. 



In the afternoon we broke camp. The Mek of 

 Tagoi chose the longer way round, for safety's sake 

 accompanying us, as we were going by the direct road 

 to Batha, and not by his hill. His men, bounding 

 from rock to rock, put the camels to shame. Where 

 distances of seventy miles on consecutive nights, in- 

 cluding, too, the climbing of hills and other arduous 

 exertions, are an ordinary test of endurance, this is 

 not surprising. Mahon used to say that he considered 

 some of the finest of native troops could be conscripted 

 from the Nubas. Our return journey was uneventful. 

 Our camels, which had started mere skeletons, were 

 now as fat as butter owing to the luscious grazing. 

 This was my first patrol. In the long night marches 

 I had found it most difficult to keep awake. The 

 easy jog of the camel, which some find so trying, 

 was most soothing to me. My men would supply 

 me with a forked stick to ward off the branches of 

 thorn-bushes, which otherwise would tear one's skin 

 as effectually as they did one's clothes. Using it at 

 night kept me awake, but often did I seize my canvas 

 water-bottle and pour the contents over my head and 

 down my spine to try to ward off sleep. 



The Nubas are not altogether confined to the 

 range of hills we had just left, which is about 

 150 by 200 miles in extent. Many isolated hills 

 are occupied by them. To see them flying up 



