THE NILE CATARACTS. 
517 
these guardians of public order to raid a village* carry off all the 
women* and then sell them back to tlieir male relations again. There 
has been a good deal of excitement over the manner in which the 
Turkish government in Armenia has carried on its authority during the 
last few years* but I doubt if it has very much differed in any portion 
of its dominions* or to any particular tribe of people within them* and 
there is this to be said* that the idea of government* or authority, or 
taxation* call it what you will* is pretty much alike in the east. When 
the order for the withdrawal of the English army of the Nile Expedi¬ 
tion reached Dongola in May, 1885* I received at the advanced post at 
Merawe* 200 miles beyond Dongola* in the country of the Shagghiea 
Arabs* a telegram from the Chief of the Staff directing me to confer 
upon a certain Mohammed Wad Ganaish* the position of governor of 
the district. This man had been known* with so many others* to be 
exceedingly doubtful in his allegiance to the Egyptian government, 
but he was of the race of the old Maleks* or kings of the Shagghiea* 
in that part of the country* and it was deemed better to make some 
attempt at establishing rulership, than to abandon the land to the 
complete confusion of there being “ no king in Israel.” I sent a 
message to Wad Ganaish and received an answer that he was ill of 
fever, and would come when able to travel. In a day or two he arrived* 
with a dozen or so followers* all mounted on excellent trotting camels ; 
the conference began* Ganaish being supported by an attendant as he 
was still suffering from fever. I briefly explained the wishes of the 
Government in relation to him ; he was to rule the country as Hakeem * 
a grade in Eastern life below that of Malek, and above that of Sheikh. 
When I had finished he spoke his mind. “ Government was a great 
and good thing*” he said. “ He would undertake the work of ruling 
the country of Merawi according to custom. By right of birth and 
parentage it was his place to do so, for his father had cut off heads* 
his grandfather had cut off heads* it had always been the peculiar 
privilege of his ancestors to cut off heads* and he, Wad Ganaish* 
was fully prepared to go on cutting off heads.” That was all; we 
marched next morning from Merawi. 
I am not at all sure that if we were to settle permanently in these 
parts we would not* sooner or later* approximate in our ideas of life to 
the people who dwell there. The man who* of all men* best knew the 
races of the east* was of the same opinion. “ Residence in these 
Oriental lands*” wrote Charles Gordon* “ tends* after a time* to blunt 
one^s sensibilities of right and justice* and therefore the necessity of 
men to return after a time to their own lands to reimbibe the old ideas 
again. The varnish of civilised life is very thin and superficial—man 
does not know what he is capable of in circumstances of this sort.” 
Quite sure am I that we should change our natures sooner than the 
Arabs or Sudanese would change theirs. And I will tell you why I 
think so. AtKorti* in 1884, I was given an interpreter* one Gemaul 
Ghendi by name. His history was a curious one. Twenty or more 
years earlier he had been taken by an English lady travelling on the 
Nile from his native village near Korosko, He was then six years of 
