290 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



For an average of ten miles west of the Nile banks the 

 country is hilly and rocky. Then one enters a vast 

 tableland reaching westward into the depths of the 

 great Sahara. An open network of rocky undulations, 

 the meshes of which consist of sandy plains some 

 hundred miles across, is thrown over it. 



About thirty miles from the river on the road to 

 Sheb oasis is an isolated group of sugar-loaf hills 

 known as El Neheidat ("the breasts"). I might here 

 mention that Arabs are very fond of naming natural 

 features after some fancied resemblance to a portion 

 of an animal's body. As this resemblance strikes 

 them at every hundred miles, it leads to endless 

 repetition. Near El Neheidat, standing alone on the 

 level sand, is a rock about twenty feet high. From 

 a distance of even fifty yards it has a striking resem- 

 blance to a colossal statue of Anubis, though, on near 

 inspection, it shows no marks of the stone-cutter's 

 art. 



No one who has not done desert travelling at this 

 time of year (November-December) can realise the 

 bitter cold of night and day. A biting wind tears 

 over the desert. Fortunately the ground is usually 

 hard enough to walk on, and as the water is very 

 brackish almost everywhere one does not need to 

 drink much, so that it is not such an ill wind after 

 all. The brackishness does not make one very thirsty. 



Near J. Fantass my main party lost the road. 

 While waiting for them I climbed the mountain, which 

 is not very steep, about 500 feet high, and consists 

 in parts of layers of soft small stones, about a foot 



