84 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



buy ivory and gold, but both were dear. The royalty 

 on the former exacted by Menelik, the Negus Negasi 

 (King of the Kings) of Abyssinia, is the tusk which 

 first touches the ground as the elephant is killed. 



Our journey back was not at all as arduous as 

 the one up had been. Then the swift current and 

 tortuous waterway had been our enemies. We were 

 tired of towing our barge — the last resort but one when 

 in difficulties. Now we raced back. To give some 

 idea of the condition of the banks I will tell this 

 anecdote. One of the native officers on board wished 

 to shoot a tiang, of which there were many on either 

 bank. As they invariably have some sentries posted 

 on the five-foot-high anthills, it is possible to get a 

 shot in spite of the very high grass. Well, this officer 

 landed on the bank, which was quite dry. Two steps 

 took him into water above his knees. "Oh, it is wet !" 

 said he. His next few steps plunged him up to his 

 neck. His rifle and red tarbush looked very ridiculous 

 as he shouted, " Oh, it is very wet ! " and decided that 

 the joys of a shikari were not for him. Everywhere 

 it was about the same. The actual bank seemed to 

 have silted up to a few feet above the level of the 

 water, but fell away at once. The country was a 

 vast swamp, intersected by khors often out of one's 

 depth. 



Litterae scriptac are of power even at home, more 

 so here. I remember one day on this trip we saw 

 a small procession moving along the bank. In front 

 walked a man carrying in the cleft of a long bamboo 

 an envelope. It contained a letter from the Mamur 



