NOMAD ARABS 227 



We passed a party of Rizeghat Arabs, camped with 

 their flocks round a large fire to keep off Hons. Our way 

 lay over more open country, and many bits were dried, 

 black cotton soil swamp. We slept for three hours, 

 and by 8 A.M. reached the Bahr el Arab. At about 

 dawn we found ourselves in very open country, and 

 when about five miles from the river entered its 

 " buta." There I shot a tiang with a very large head, 

 and of the colour of a Jackson hartebeest. He re- 

 mains to be identified, as the Kordofan tiang, I am 

 assured, is a small animal of the same colour as the 

 ordinary one, but with a heavier head. Some one 

 may yet be made happy by standing godfather to it. 



This reminds me of an amusing incident. When I 

 first reached Wau a stock subject of conversation was 

 the difference between the local cob and the ordinary 

 one {Cobus leiicotis). A year later a keen sportsman 

 joined us, and having shot one of the former, sent it 

 to be classified. He was astonished to hear that it 

 had been recognised as a separate species and named 

 after himself. 



Sheikh Shenoa's village was the ordinary con- 

 glomeration of rude shelters of nomad Arabs. It was 

 a mile or so from the river, on Khor Marara. He 

 brought me to the Bahr el Arab. A series of slime- 

 covered pools, in a waterway cut 20 feet deep and 

 20 yards broad in clay, formed the main stream. 

 A few big trees were scattered along the banks. The 

 " buta," which in flood is covered to the depth of several 

 feet, stretched for miles on either bank. The sheikh 

 brought me water as thick as thin gruel in a big half 



