198 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



it was very late — I set a fallen tree alight. It made 

 a bonfire many feet high, but, to show the density of 

 the high forest, it was not seen till quite close by the 

 incomers. 



From the Pongo northwards we passed many 

 babais, though water was sometimes difficult to find. 

 The old inhabitants must have used wells. In one 

 place we dug holes in a swamp and drank the water 

 that filtered into them. 



When close to the Kuru we were rather amused by 

 the result of a united shout to frighten a small herd of 

 giraffe who stupidly stood close by and watched us. 

 We were forcing our way through a depression filled 

 for many yards across with dry tangled grass, two to 

 three feet high. Our shout frightened a lion, perhaps 

 spoilt his intended dinner, for away he bounded from 

 quite close. He repaid us. One of my donkeys was 

 very stubborn — most likely dying from trypano- 

 somiasis. He lay down. I forbade the native in 

 charge to beat him, as once the black man commences 

 he is likely to lose control of himself, but tried the 

 Arab remedy (known further north, vide " The Strayings 

 of Sandy") to make a stubborn camel, "a devil an' a 

 ostrich an' a orphan child in one," rise. This is to 

 approach the brute with fire. He does not wait to be 

 even scorched. The tangled grass, however, finished 

 him. The man in charge of him watched him lie 

 down to die. Not knowing what to do, he remained 

 close to him, and was found by a man, whom I sent 

 out to bring him in, seated on one side of the donkey 

 with a lion on the other — not hand in hand, of 



