CATTLE DISEASE 253 



competition (?) to be imprisoned, so palatial were our 

 male and female wards. I suppose that, now the 

 headquarters of the station has been moved to the 

 north, " the lion and the lizard keep the halls." I 

 little thought that my inspection of the station and 

 the few words of praise I allowed myself to give the 

 Jehadia were a farewell. 



My maps and reports on the district I later recovered 

 from a waste-paper basket in the Wau Office. In the 

 confusion of conducting the Niam-Niam patrols they 

 were flung aside. In the latter I find the price of 

 grain in the district. At Dem Zubeir an ardeb (300 

 lbs.) cost 7s.; at Kossinga, 9s.; at Kafiakingi, 3s. It 

 was said that in the days of Zubeir Pasha, i.e. twenty- 

 five years ago, the country was almost too densely 

 populated, and the lowing of kine was the predomi- 

 nant note along the watershed. In our time not even 

 sheep could live. A symptom of a disease they 

 suffered from was a swelled head, and unlike many 

 that could be better spared who suffer from the same 

 complaint they invariably demised. Clearing roads, 

 on which there was to be no traffic, proved to be an 

 Augean task. The French were reported to have two 

 walled enclosures about five yards square, with walls 

 five feet high, in every station in French Congo. 

 These should be filled at stated intervals with ivory 

 and rubber, for which a regular and uniform price 

 was paid. The gellaba, or native pedlar, always tries 

 to take his capital away in ivory, black or white. 

 Wahbi Eff., whose upbringing entitled him to speak, 

 used to say that the district offered great facilities to 



