TWO LOCAL SULTANS 183 



Once or twice I left the station and went a short 

 distance into the surrounding country. The amount 

 of babais, now the home of shade-seeking game, told 

 of the teeming population travellers in Zubeir's time 

 had found here. 



Having so good an executive officer as Wahbi Eff., 

 there was no point in my staying at Dem Zubeir. I 

 had privately set myself the task of determining the 

 course of the western sources of the Nile, if this could 

 be done in connection with my own work. I had 

 already crossed near the sources of all the western 

 tributaries of the Nile from the Bahr el Arab south- 

 ward, and now a visit of inspection in the uninhabited 

 district of Dem Bekeir, to which it was proposed to 

 transplant Sultan Said Baldas and his people, would 

 bring me to a tributary of the Jur, i.e. a southern 

 source of the Nile. 



As it was possible that we might meet parties of 

 Niam-Niam, fugitives from the fighting which was 

 {not) going on in the south, I took with me an escort 

 of twenty Jehadia and the doctor, Tibsherani Eff., who 

 was refreshed by his eighteen days' rest. A sub-sheikh 

 of Said Baldas with several men also accompanied me. 



For the first few miles we passed through the 

 scattered villages of Sultan Musa Kamindigo. I do 

 not know what my excuse can be for not introducing 

 the two local sultans before. Their people did all 

 the work of the district in the way of carrying and 

 working. 



Musa Kamindigo, lord of the Kreish, was a funny 

 old fellow. His villages covered an area of about 



