THE NUBAS 27 



what appears to be the naked smooth face of a 

 precipice is a sight worth remembering. Some 

 of their Meks are of Arab extraction, e.g. Rashad. 

 They show their cunning in defence, not only in 

 putting their villages in as inaccessible places as they 

 can find, but also in digging pits furnished with spikes 

 at the bottom, and in leaving the stumps of trees 

 standing in their cultivation, so that marauding horse- 

 men (Arabs) would be well advised to move cannily 

 when raiding for slaves. The camels I had left in 

 El Obeid looked worse than before by comparison 

 with the ones I brought back. Fortunately the rains 

 were not long in coming. Real torrential rain, which 

 set a roaring torrent running six feet deep and quite 

 impassable between the town and the barracks — a 

 torrent which, however, dried up within a couple of 

 hours of the rain stopping. 



Partly to secure new grazing grounds for my camels, 

 and partly in order to teach my men how to shoot, 

 I took my Company out to J. Kurbag, a small hill 

 about seven miles north-east of El Obeid. The interest 

 my Arabs took in musketry was phenomenal. I re- 

 member one man seemed unable to hit the target. 

 I was helping him to aim one day, and he got two 

 bulls in succession. I let him shoot unaided the 

 next shot, and he again scored a bull, whereupon 

 he bounced up and, shaking his rifle above his head, 

 shouted, " I have learned how to shoot ! " again and 

 again. He turned out one of the best shots. 



The province at this time was to suffer a terrible loss. 

 Mahon was promoted to a command in India. One 



