J. DEIGO 53 



Round his neck he wore a wooden rosary with five 

 gold beads in it. I had my chair in my khoorg, so 

 the furwa was spread for the Sultan, and I sat down, 

 dirty, unshaved, and ragged — for thorn-bushes give no 

 quarter — the representative of the British Raj. 



By means of an interpreter, the Sultan, a Nuba (as 

 an exception he does not call himself a Mek), made 

 a long speech. Its gist was that he had never sub- 

 mitted to any one yet — not even to the dervishes ; and 

 that what he paid the Government was tribute, not 

 taxes. I made a suitable reply, and he sat down on 

 the furwa; his wazirs, some twenty in number, all 

 insisting on a share of the seat of honour. The 

 remainder squatted round, and we began to talk and 

 chaff. Till, however, Hamza Eff. joined us we did 

 not get far, as both the interpreter's Arabic and mine 

 left much to be desired. As it turned out, Hamza 

 Eff. was an old acquaintance. Before Gordon's time 

 this hill with others was under the over-lordship of 

 the Omda of the Shaigia, the former's father. This 

 meant that each Nuba chief had to supply yearly a 

 number of boys and girls as slaves, failing which the 

 whole mountain would be raided, and all captives 

 enslaved or killed. 



The Sultan sent for grain at once, brought me a 

 present of a sheep, which I refused, and some ground 

 nuts and marissa, which I bought for my men. 



The morning after my arrival 1 carefully inspected 

 the camels, and found all taking their grain well and 

 grazing with avidity, under Nubas supplied by the 

 Sultan. I may say here that not one of the camels 



