280 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
and my sudden turning-back and coming round the bush 
from the unexpected flank had taken him unawares. 
The second incident I quote from my diary as 
follows :—“ Beyond a belt of tall jungle-grass observed 
an aggregation of small antelope or gazelles massed 
together more densely than one usually sees those 
animals. All were facing jungle-wards. While stalking 
the group and already within gunshot, I got a momentary 
glimpse of a cat-like form disappearing behind a tussock, 
and promptly put in both barrels of the Paradox; one 
bullet told. The fugitive proved to be a male of the 
serval or tiger-cat, the flat skin taping 51 inches, of 
which the tail measured 12 inches. The massed forma¬ 
tion of the antelopes now appeared to have been a 
defensive attitude assumed in the known presence of 
danger.” 
(11) Mongalla 
Mongalla, the southernmost Government station in 
Sudan, does not impress; a few native huts with a 
scattered bungalow or two is all one may see. Yet this 
is the capital of a district as big—so we were assured— 
as France, and all controlled and administered (politically 
and judicially) by brains that are concentrable within a 
single white skull. There is nothing out-of-the-way in 
this; it is, in fact, a commonplace throughout the 
savage areas of our British Empire. Yet one may 
wonder how many of the good stay-at-home folk realise 
such things, or appreciate the services being rendered 
year in and year out-—not only to our country but to 
the world—by these exiled and isolated Britishers? 
The above sentence was penned some few years ago. 
Since then, in March 1919, I have revisited Mongalla. 
At that date the Governor of the Province was Major 
C. H. Stigand—a man whose commanding personality 
and physique, and alike a charming manner, equally 
impressed. Stigand stood foremost, primus inter pares — 
