FAREWELL 123 



out their lower incisors. They are real swamp 

 negroids. I had once a rather amusing argument 

 with a man who had done a shooting trip near 

 Shambei, on the Bahr el Jebel, where I understand 

 the Jur Bei live, who are a squat, copper-coloured 

 people, whereas the true Jur, whom I administered 

 for a year, are long, thin, and very dark. He thought 

 he clinched his argument by saying, "Why, I wrote a 

 little brochure on the tribes of the Bahr el Ghazal, and 

 it was accepted by a magazine." I wonder was it the 

 Wide World. 



As I had not spent quite fourteen days, or three 

 weeks all told, in my district, I may be forgiven for 

 being mad with delight on hearing that I was leaving, 

 as I supposed, for the " front." The order came about 

 4 P.M. The steamer would be ready to take me off at 

 6 A.M. next morning. I made a point of being ready 

 on the landing-place, surrounded by my kit, in time. 

 When I passed again I saw the little sasaban planta- 

 tion I had made running down to the landing-place 

 had grown from six inches to ten feet ! The lemonry 

 behind the house was doing well, and the khor near 

 the house had been dredged of sudd, and hence the 

 awful mosquito plague, the main breeding-ground 

 being gone, was much lessened. I left some great 

 pals behind me. The old shawish of the police had 

 told me many a story of the E. A. from times long 

 before to the British occupation. The policeman, 

 gardener, and I had struggled together under the 

 weight of trees when transplanting them. The Mamur 

 was a very good, and, like all native ofiicers, pleasant 



