VII 



SKETCHES IN THE SOUDAN (continued) 

 IV. A DAY IN THE JUNGLE 



GAND I were already mounted, with our express rifles slung 

 over the shoulder and water-bottle hanging on the saddle, 

 waiting until it should please our hunters to start. It was 

 always hard work, and required a good deal of strong language, 

 freely translated by our dragoman into equally forcible Arabic, 

 to get these lazy men to move, men of whom we had expected so 

 much and who so soon proved to be such utter failures. At last 

 they are on their horses, and each having been joined by a 

 tracker on foot, come after us, one set going with G., the other 

 accompanying me, and carrying our heavy rifles across the 

 saddles in front of them. Soon after leaving the camp our 

 parties divide, each going in a different direction so as not to 

 interfere with one another's sport. These " sword-hunters," on 

 their good-looking, well-fed horses, certainly look like work, but 

 unfortunately their looks belie them. When, some time ago, we 

 engaged them after a great deal of difficulty from their very 

 plausible sheikh, to take us into an entirely new country new, 

 at all events, to Europeans we, remembering the feats 

 performed by those brilliant sportsmen, the sword hunters oi 

 Sir Samuel Baker, feats so graphically described by him ; and 

 when the agreement, offering them so much for every elephant, 

 buffalo, lion, giraffe, and ostrich we should kill, was drawn up, 

 and looked so well on paper, then, indeed, we had great 

 expectations of most splendid sport expectations in which, alas ! 

 we were doomed to disappointment. Not only did the men turn 

 out almost worse than useless, but the game had been driven 

 from the promised land by native hunters, agents of the Cassala 



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