THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIRE 



63 



to a tawny yellow. It is suggestive that the beautifully preserved 

 mummies of Queen Hattisu and her husband in the Cairo Museum 

 have hair of the same pale straw colour, which appeared to us to 

 have been treated in the same manner. 



The tribe owns herds of great long-horned cattle and subsists 

 largely on milk, but do not kill for meat except on occasions of 

 rejoicing. These cattle are always herded in the villages at night. 

 About sunset the collected dung of the night before is burned to 

 make a dense smudge of smoke as a protection against mosquitos, 

 for which purpose the Nuers also, like the Dinkas, smear their 

 bodies with wood ashes. 



Leaving the Zeraf we turned again up the stream of the Bahr- 

 el-Abiad, the local name of the White Nile, and presently found 

 marshes on either hand — green plains of reed grass which broaden 

 to illimitable distances as Lake No is approached. Occasional 

 villages there are, but always far back from the river, probably so 

 placed to avoid mosquitos. We could neither see habitations nor 

 game, which must have been hidden by the reeds if it had been 

 there, but we continually disturbed the boat-billed stork — Bakeni- 

 ceps rex. This strangely quaint bird is placed in the schedule 

 of absolutely protected species, but did not seem to us rare. 

 Moreover, only naturalists desire specimens, and none would wish 

 to eat it. 



To find hard landing-places became henceforth increasingly 

 difficult. We sometimes effected a passage through the reeds by 

 sending our crew into them, to beat them down, after which 

 our little Berthon boat would bo pushed through or over by main 

 force. I may here observe that we found this little collapsible 

 craft far more manageable from its buoyancy than the clumsy 

 wooden felucca. From the deck of our gyassa we had not the 

 same 'opportunity of surveying the country for game which the 

 traveller on the high deck of a steamer has, but twice in this part 

 of the river we saw the coveted ' Mrs. Gray ' in the distance. The 

 wind being favourable at the time, we noted the position and passed 

 on to Lake No. On the northern bank of the lake and nearly 

 opposite to tiio embouchure of the Bahr-el-Jebel, which here enters 

 from the south, is a fairly dry plain, upon which were vast herds of 

 leucotys pasturing and some roodbuck. My companion, Sir Alfred 

 Lease,' noticed that the latter have a habit of bending their hind 

 legs and sitting half down when surprised. 



There is little open water in Lake No at low Nile, and what 

 there is is cumbered with masses of floating sudd. Our reis 

 steered us into a cul-de-sac, from which it was a long business to 

 extricate ourselves in the teeth of a high wind. The proper course 

 is to hug the northern bank, if bank it can be called when there is 

 nothing solid. It was at this time very hot, and that, perhaps, 

 accounted for the liveliness of the fish in Lake No and the adjoin- 

 ing rivers. They were continually rising or jumping clear of the 

 surface. Some were of large size. We caught a few with simple 

 hues. Any visitor armed with suitable appliances, especially a 



