IVORY REGULATIONS 145 



was forbidden to any one unprovided with a pass 

 signed by the Sirdar or the Governor of the Fashoda 

 province (it was said that this particular Governor 

 was selected as the compiler of the ordinance fancied 

 there was no ivory anywhere else !), and who had not 

 made a ^50 deposit. Any attempt to infringe this 

 ordinance was to be sternly repressed. Exception 

 only was made for the natives of the Bahr el Ghazal. 

 In other words, would-be buyers of ivory had a several 

 months' long journey before them to provide them- 

 selves with a permit. I took it upon myself to offer 

 to issue provisional ones, but could not cancel the 

 deposit. Now, who would have ^^50 of bullion in 

 the wilds of Central Africa ? One man gathered that 

 together. The others said they would return to 

 Khartum. As a matter of fact I know that they 

 simply ignored the order and chanced being found 

 flagrante delicto. I asked myself then, and tactlessly 

 asked others, and yet ask any one to tell me what 

 was the meaning of this ordinance. The penalties 

 were not meant to be exacted. Each buyer should 

 have a permit, but should he have a slave of Bahr 

 el Ghazal birth to put forward as such, no permit was 

 needed at all. There could be no loss of revenue, as 

 it is supposed that no ivory can leave the Sudan in 

 such a quantity as to be of consequence without having 

 the royalty paid on it. Boulnois Bey's approval of 

 my action in complying with his very strict orders 

 in repressing this illicit trade alone saved me from 

 immediate severe consequences for carrying them out. 

 Indeed, one might say of many of the Sudan ordi- 



