EARLY WORK 73 



trate), a capable native officer, did the very simple 

 work of the place. I sat and scratched, and almost 

 longed for Khartum, and, oh ! how I longed to be 

 back in the Hagana. 



One day an aggrieved deputation arrived to demand 

 rain ! " Inshallah, it will come soon," was the only 

 possible reply. Some days later, my pony having 

 arrivfid from El Eddaiya, I rode round the place 

 promising rain, which was overdue. As a shower 

 fell that night, a second deputation arrived to thank 

 me, and to say that it had only fallen within the 

 circle I had ridden, so would I ride elsewhere and 

 bring it. I did not bless the rain, necessary as it was 

 for the crops. The black cotton soil on which my 

 house stood became a perfect quagmire. The house 

 had been partly built by the hands of Captain H. 

 Wilson (Lancashire Fusiliers), the first inspector of 

 Renk, but its position was awful. Apart from the 

 fact that it was in the centre of the worst section of 

 mosquitoes, it was so near the river that hippopotami 

 walking round the hedge of the garden, but not 

 breaking through, fearing a trap, made the night 

 hideous with their yawnings and snortings ten to 

 twenty yards off. 



In the meantime one of the men of my Company 

 of the Hagana had arrived with my pony and kit. I 

 could have fallen on the man's neck. He, on his 

 part, was most eloquent. Ah 1 the Irishman is not the 

 only one who knows how to blarney. He brought, or 

 said he did, messages from the Company that I should 

 send a " paper " to the Sirdar to get sent back to 



