226 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



Shenoa's village. We had, first of all, to secure recep- 

 tacles for water, so I hired all the gourds I could and 

 put them on the carriers. I put my kit on my riding 

 donkey. At this place and time the pin of my pris- 

 matic compass fell out, but I made good the loss with 

 a nail out of my camp bed. 



The country about had been steadily changing. 

 It must be remembered that we were but little south 

 of the latitude of Turda in Kordofan, which place it 

 much resembled. Quite a feature of the road were 

 the wet weather villages, deserted in the dry weather 

 through want of water. 



Our guide was very religious. The season before 

 he had been cruelly broken up by an elephant he 

 and a party had been hunting. Need I add that 

 broken and badly-set limbs were the order of the 

 day among the Mandalla. These great elephant- 

 hunters kill their quarry with Baggara spears. The 

 head, the size of a small shovel, is fixed to an i8-feet- 

 long bamboo. The hunters strip naked and tackle 

 the first elephant they meet. The parties usually con- 

 sist of six men. They tried killing buffaloes in the 

 same way, but their first accounted for nearly half the 

 hunters. 



The elephant tracks we passed were small. I was 

 told here and elsewhere that the elephant of these parts 

 is lanky, small-footed, poor of tusk, and very fierce. 



I remember that on this march from Umbegago I 

 was very musical (save the mark !), and whistled and 

 sang the air of every tune — religious, comic, heroic, or 

 sentimental — that I knew. 



