THE CHASE OF SHEIKH ANDAL 177 



it, but a little hill south of the road near which I 

 stalked a roan. My men's keenness that I should 

 shoot a wart-hog in sight spoilt my stalk, and was 

 inexplicable, till I saw them attack the raw carcase 

 of a hartebeest a few hours later. The younger men 

 had come out without any food ! and yet marched 

 uncomplainingly on, half famished. 



East of the Sirri, rivers like it with low banks and 

 broad, sandy beds were quite a feature of the country, 

 which was undulating and rocky. The Sheleikei, where 

 we crossed, had an island between two beds 35 yards 

 and 54 yards broad respectively ; the Janverindi was 

 32 yards wide ; the Khairbara, just below Kabalosu, 

 was 45 yards. On the contrary the Kavaduku and 

 Gotelo, a few miles either side of that town, were 

 rocky, high banked, and about a dozen yards wide. 

 They all flowed north to the Bahr el Arab. 



Sultan Musa Hamed had come to meet me at 

 Kabalosu. He did not lose much time in giving away 

 his neighbours. On his information a Coptic dealer 

 in rifles was captured. He had a good deal of cor- 

 roborative evidence to give about the active slave trade 

 that went on. He implicated El Hag Tahir, Sultan 

 Nasr Andal's brother, who had a regular mart near 

 J. Telgona. I made arrangements to capture him, but 

 the French were before me. They took him with a 

 caravan of slaves near Zemio's, on the Oubangi (tribu- 

 tary of Congo), and gave him five years. 



At Kabalosu I was called on to doctor a merchant 



who was very sick. After a good purge and a dose 



of quinine he was much better, and sent me a couple 



M 



