158 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



I had to leave my Abyssinian pony " Tops " behind 

 me at Kossinga. The tsetse fly killed him. About 

 half-way to Ragaa is a ridge from which the country 

 to the west can be seen for miles. From it I located 

 J. Liffi, at a bend of the river Ragaa, so often men- 

 tioned by the first explorers. 



On approaching Sultan Musa Hamed's capital we 

 had the same amount of bugle blowing as before at 

 Kossinga. The reception was not at all so well stage- 

 managed as at the latter place. 



Musa Hamed and I were now old friends. We 

 had met several times, and I had clad him in a first- 

 class robe of honour at Wau. He is about 5 feet 

 6 inches high, twenty-five years of age (in 1906), 

 dresses like an Arab, and lays claim to a pedigree. In 

 it a march from Mecca, in which large brass drums 

 figured largely, forms a principal feature. He is open 

 and ingenuous, a gentleman according to his lights. 

 He did not welcome the change of headquarters from 

 Dem Zubeir to his capital which took place later, and 

 was accordingly deposed in 1908. 



He ruled over a sultanate 9600 (160 by 60) square 

 miles, containing about 3500 inhabitants. 



I had now to sketch all my routes. Except the 

 compilation Wau-Dem Zubeir-Chak-chak-Kossinga- 

 Dem Zubeir, the district, about 264,000 (1320 by 200) 

 square miles, had not only not been mapped, but 

 scarcely patrolled. I sketched three separate routes 

 from north to south and two from east to west. 



I had many routes open to me from Ragaa, one 

 of which, which I naturally avoided, had already 



