236 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



I left Yo on the 26tli and stayed for the night at Arrege. 

 The town is in ruins, and its few inhabitants Uve in huts 

 among the broken houses. Outside in the sand bleached 

 bones and skulls are scattered, that mark the bloody track 

 made by Rabeh's army. All that night my sleep was con- 

 tinually broken by the mournful howls of dogs from every 

 quarter round, that seemed to be echoing the melancholy 

 of the place. 



In the morning I went down to have my first look at the 

 Lake, mentally striding the three or four miles on the tip-toe 

 of expectation, for I was about to see the dream of many 

 days embodied at my feet. For the first two miles the path 

 led through thick bushes and gum-trees, and then we came 

 out on to an open plain, a mile wide, and there beyond 

 lay the broad, silvery expanse of Lake Chad, merging so gently 

 into land and sky as it lay quivering in the haze, that 

 it seemed like a soft reflected light flashed from the 

 mirror of the sky. But my contemplation of the Lake was 

 abruptly disturbed by the sound of shouts and clashes, and 

 on looking in the direction whence they came, I could see a 

 crowd of men down by the water's edge busily engaged in 

 battle. Taking a better sight with my glasses, a most lively 

 scene presented itself. There were twenty to thirty men, 

 rushing wildly about and engaging in hand to hand combats 

 with spears and shields. The spears were being thrown in 

 all directions, but so deftly did the fighters use their shields, 

 that none were killed in the battle and only a few got wounds. 

 But then the battle was never fought to a finish, for after I 

 had been watching it for a few minutes with feehngs of 

 excitement akin to those of the crowd at a Cup Tie match. 



