134 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



could see nothing, but they made off at a furious rate. 

 I followed for a short distance, and came on the tracks 

 of the wounded animal, quite evidently being helped 

 along by a pair of friends. One of his legs was 

 dragging. The following morning the alarming symp- 

 toms had almost vanished and by night were gone. 

 I got the medical officer's letter some days later. It 

 said : " I think you have an irritation of the kidneys 

 through having the sun in your back and drinking bad 

 water, and the symptoms will soon pass. If you have 

 blackwater fever, which, as you have never had malaria, 

 would be extraordinary, you will be dead by the time 

 this letter reaches you. So cheer up." 



No doubt my rapid recovery was due in a great 

 measure to our finding a pool of clean water. Hitherto 

 we had drunk water from a marsh into which every 

 animal in the vicinity had wandered. A shudder is 

 thrown away, for the African traveller is often glad, as 

 how often have I not been, of anything that resembles 

 liquid, even mud flavoured with anything. 



As I was marching to my next halting-place I put 

 up a buffalo that had selected the path as a nice place 

 to sleep on. In the faint grey of the false dawn I 

 could see a black mass in front of me. One can 

 imagine my fright when it jumped up and bolted. My 

 pony did the same, so, while waiting to have him 

 brought back, I lit the surrounding grass in order to 

 prevent a possible, though not probable, charge. I 

 cannot refrain from speaking about the dawns. About 

 3 A.M., breaking the pitchy darkness, there appears 

 what Fitzgerald so picturesquely describes as " dawn's 



