CHAPTER XI 



My house at Dem Zubeir — The Senussi bubble and the building of the 

 fort — I hold a levee — And enforce an order — The carrier question — 

 Our exchequer — A mild mutiny ends peaceably — Tibsherani Eff. — 

 The importance of maps — An impressive welcome — My Christmas 

 dinner — Ivory merchants and government regulations — Kossinga and 

 its inhabitants — Nasr Andal and others. 



They escorted me to my house, and I gazed round 

 my headquarters. In front was a square, the far side 

 of which was the fort, and one of the trees under which 

 Zubeir is supposed to have given the celebrated instruc- 

 tions which led to the rising of the slave-traders under 

 his son Suliman. Forming the other sides were a few 

 grandiose native huts forming barracks for one Com- 

 pany of Sudanese (which I was to send back to Wau), 

 the hospital, clerks', guests', and officers' houses. 

 These were built on the site of the ruins of Zubeir's 

 "dem" (settlement), hence the name. 



The fort represented a huge amount of labour and 

 hysteria. Not far from the north-western boundary of 

 the province lived a petty sheikh, a namesake of the 

 great Senussi, the religious revivalist and bogie-man of 

 Northern Africa. The Senussi bubble has yet to be 

 pricked. This sheikh, who, needless to say, had no 

 connection with the holy one of Jarabub and Kufra, 

 used, till I suggested coming to him, to amuse himself 



