CHAP. I.] 
CORPORAL RICIIARN. 
51 
Obliged to haul along by fastening long ropes to the 
grass about a hundred yards ahead. This is frightful 
work; the men must swim that distance to secure the 
rope, and those on board hauling it in gradually, pull 
the vessel against the stream. Nothing can exceed 
the labour and tediousness of this operation. From 
constant work in the water many of my men are 
suffering from fever. The temperature is much higher 
than when we left Khartoum ; the country, as usual, 
one vast marsh. At night the hoarse music of hippo¬ 
potami snorting and playing among the high-flooded 
reeds, and the singing of countless myriads of mos¬ 
quitoes—the nightingales of the White Nile. My black 
fellow, Kicharn, whom I had appointed corporal, will 
soon be reduced to the ranks; the animal is spoiled 
by sheer drink. Having been drunk every day in 
Khartoum, and now being separated from his liquor, 
he is plunged into a black melancholy. He sits upon 
the luggage like a sick rook, doing minstrelsy, playing 
the rababa (guitar), and smoking the whole day, unless 
asleep, which is half that time : he is sighing after the 
merissa (beer) pots of Egypt. This man is an illustra¬ 
tion of missionary success. He was brought up from 
boyhood at the Austrian mission, and he is a genuine 
specimen of the average results. He told me a few 
days ago that “ he is no longer a Christian.” 
