414 
THE SUDAN 
far advanced that with the water at such a low level it was not 
possible to make the usual excursion up the Blue Nile. However, 
after a good deal of difficulty I managed on February 15th to hire a 
small oil-fed steam-launch, in which we got to Soba, fifteen miles up 
stream, where mounds and brick-bats are all that remain of the 
evidently once considerable capital of the Christian kingdom of 
Aloa. We landed on the north side of the river at about noon, 
and had to climb up a steep bank sheltered from the north wind, 
with the sun’s rays pouring down upon our backs with a power 
that I have seldom experienced, so that I fully expected to be struck 
down. At the top we found ourselves in a somewhat scanty thorn- 
scrub. 
The Sudanese keeper of the ruined shanty, by courtesy called the 
Best-house, with the aid of two female slaves, prepared some coffee 
for me. A few beans were roasted in the ashes of a wood fire, they 
were then ground with a stone in a rough mortar. The operation of 
boiling was effected in a narrow-necked pot of the local red earthen¬ 
ware, and the liquid was strained through a tuft of grass thrust into 
the mouth of the pot. After boiling up three times and straining as 
often, the red pot was served up in its own elegant cosy of plaited 
straw of many colours. The resultant fluid was cafe noir of the finest 
flavour that it has ever been my lot to taste, a result probably 
attributable to the fact that less than half an hour had elapsed since 
the roasting of the beans. 
The cruel prickles, the great heat, and the strong wind, contributed 
to make collecting difficult. With the exception of a female of the 
common Eumenes tinctor, found in the Best-house, and two Sphegids, 
Bembex mediterranea and TacJiyspJiex fluctuatus , Gerst., both females, 
all my captures were butterflies. Of the orange-tipped Teracolus 
ephyia , I took four males, in one of which I detected a sweet scent; 
a male Belenois mesentina also had a sweet scent, which was lacking 
in two females. Tarucus theophrastus was in abundance about 
bushes; one at rest was seen to move its wings after the manner 
common among Lycaenids. The take of the day was a nice little 
series of seven males of Calopieris eiclimine, four of them in fine 
condition. This is not only a scarce, but a most beautiful insect; the 
orange tips to its fore-wings are delicately shot with violet, while the 
veins on the underside of the hind-wings are brilliant orange. [Plate 
v.. Figs. 1,2.] 
