ILLICIT IVORY TRADE 171 



On my return to Kafiakingi a most unpleasant duty 

 had to be performed. This was one centre of the 

 illicit ivory trade. Four days before, in a discussion 

 on the subject, the merchants had informed me that 

 illicit trade was unheard of, and that the two or three 

 hundred kine they had with them were to be sold 

 for cash. Therefore on my return I ordered a search 

 to be made of the merchants' quarter. Thirteen large 

 tusks were found, and no less than 109 small female 

 and immature male tusks ! To people who read with 

 equanimity that in Portuguese Africa 4000 elephants 

 were surrounded and shot, and that the average weight 

 of the tusks was under 10 lbs., it may seem no enor- 

 mity that cows and calves should be so ruthlessly 

 murdered. To us it was a relief to be able to put 

 the law in motion against those whose violation of it 

 produced such results. Merchants from Wadai were 

 more leniently treated than those from the Anglo- 

 Egyptian Sudan. Repugnant, however, as this work 

 was, the very strict injunctions of the Mudir left me 

 no other course, except that of shirking my duty. 



A certain sheikh, Andal Abdulahi, was here handed 

 over to me. He was wanted — I forget what for — at 

 Wau. As he was a man of note, and I knew that 

 his visit to Wau was only for a reprimand, I did not 

 treat him as a " prisoner." 



My party was now fairly large, for I had recruited en 

 route, and it now numbered about seventy men. With 

 these I started east for Kabalosu, another great centre 

 of trade. Before starting I was rather curious to see 

 how the enforcement of the ivory ordinance would 



