BUILDING 269 



On our return journey some excitement was caused 

 by the sandal catching fire, which resulted in some 

 nasty burns, and almost the loss, by drowning, of some 

 women, who preferred the chance of crocodiles to the 

 certainty of burns, and jumped into the river. 



We went at an easy pace from Meshra. A bridge 

 on the road, built by Captain Leigh, D.S.O. (K.O.S.B.), 

 bore on its surface a warranty from a herd of elephants 

 which had passed over it. The wells were all about 

 eighteen feet deep, but water was indifferent and 

 scarce. 



Back in Wau work begins in earnest. The "loose 

 stone" walls of Fort Desaix fall, and slowly those of 

 a brick Fort Wau arise. I still expected to go back to 

 " Utopia unlimited," as my western district was called, 

 so administered both districts. In the meantime, 

 during the flood of the river, Yambio's war drum, 

 seized by the patrols in the Niam-Niam country, had 

 been sent to Khartum, where it now lies in the Gordon 

 College. It is about 3 feet 6 inches in height and 

 breadth, and 9 feet from end to end. It is carved, 

 in the rough semblance of a buffalo, out of one log. 

 Down the centre of the back runs a i-inch wide 

 slit, through which the inside had been hollowed. It 

 is a marvellous production of native skill. It took 

 twenty men to carry it along the 200 miles of forest 

 path to Wau. Cannibals are ages ahead of their 

 neighbours. Their wood and ivory carving, iron, 

 basket, and feather work, not to forget the bark cloth 

 (beaten with an ivory hammer, the property of Sultans), 

 are beautiful. In intelligence, too, they excel. 



