SKETCHES IN THE SOUDAN 27 



here and there, birds were singing, and on a high rock were 

 some noisy monkeys rolling down stones at us. It was as pretty 

 a place as the sight of the cool, clear water was refreshing, but 

 unfortunately it proved as short a pleasure as it was an enjoyable 

 one. The water, welling up from some spring in the river-bed, 

 was soon lost again in the sand, and the vision of camping that 

 night at running water, with baths to follow, had soon vanished. 

 We now leave the river for awhile, to cut off a corner, and march 

 across a very stony plain, covered with thorny mimosa shrubs, 

 some now leafless, a few brown pods alone remaining on the bare 

 branches, others covered with their beautifully green and deli- 

 cately shaped leaves, and exhaling a delightful perfume from 

 their little yellow ball-like flowers. Their thorns are very long, 

 straight, and sharp, but they are greedily eaten by camels, who 

 strip them, together with the leaves, from off the branches, and 

 by goats, which carefully pick the leaves out from between the 

 thorns. It seems curious that almost every tree and shrub is 

 here provided with thorns, and Nature seems to have expended 

 a very great deal of ingenuity in devising them in their most 

 objectionable shape. With what object it is indeed difficult to 

 guess ; that they are the cause of frequent bad language is very 

 certain. If once in contact with a kittar bush, the worst of all, 

 with its curved, double, fish-hook-like instruments of torture, the 

 attempt to disentangle oneself by undoing the thorns in turn is 

 simply useless ; if free from one, another catches only the more 

 firmly, until the entanglement seems utterly hopeless. The 

 only way then is to screw up one's courage, make a rush, bear 

 the pain, and leave patches of clothes, skin, and blood behind. 

 Natives, thanks to the simplicity of their clothing, are naturally 

 in great dread of these thorns, but have a simple way of avoiding 

 them when passing the thorny bush ; with their sticks they raise 

 the dangerous branch, and press it against the one above ; there 

 it catches, and is held out of the way by its thorns, thus leaving 

 the passage clear. These plains, covered with mimosa bush, are 

 the favourite haunt of gazelles, who also are very fond of the 

 succulent leaves ; and here they are, thanks to the cover, more 

 easily stalked. Camels naturally dislike this ground, covered as 

 it is with loose, sharp stones, which hurt their feet and cause 

 them to stumble the latter a most uncomfortable sensation to 

 the rider. Soon we once more see the green banks of the river 



