138 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
The dual services, i.e n that of the hunter abroad and 
that of the zoologist at home, are essentially complemen¬ 
tary, and should be brought into effective co-ordination. 
So long as the first is careless and neglectful of opportunity, 
the other (lacking “material”) is apt to plunge into theory 
and wild deduction that clouds every issue . 1 
Beyond the Zeraf River the main Nile assumes that 
irregular subdivided course already indicated. It is, 
moreover, flanked by infinite lateral lagoons teeming 
with wild-life, and each an example of amazing “ struggles 
for existence.” These sequestered pools are darkened 
by mobs of ducks and geese—spurwing and comb-geese, 
whistling-teal, etc.—along with all the other water-fowl in 
thousands, but all complacently regardless of their human 
neighbours, of the stark Shilluks—coal-black, ebonite 
figures—attending their herds close by; in fact, birds, 
beasts, and savage men seem all mixed in confusion, 
neither noticing the other. These lagoons too, are full 
of fish, many of large size, and all being prisoners—cut 
off at the dry season from the main stream—-are at the 
mercy of enemies of every genus. Crocodiles and pelicans 
pouch them by wholesale, and the Shilluk with poised 
spear, wades, heron - like, amidst the fringing reeds. 
Frequently we saw these savages, casting at a venture, 
transfix victims that looked like ten to twenty-pounders, 
great silvery perch with eyes like rubies and scales big 
as half-crowns. Perhaps that term “the struggle for 
existence ” becomes a misnomer where the weaker section 
seems complacently and resignedly—almost apathetically 
—to accept the office, each in turn, of providing a food- 
supply to its stronger neighbours. 
Often on some long spit or shelving mud-bank, crowded 
to the last inch with massed water-fowl-—geese, cranes, and 
1 The functions of the systematise after all, are subsidiary or ancillary ; 
he is the “hewer of wood and drawer of water . 33 It is the explorer, the 
wilderness-hunter, and the field-naturalist who discover distant forests,and 
locate the secret spring-heads. 
