156 AN ANCIENT WELL, Our first day out from Haikota, we only made four hours.

The country was uninteresting, — the usual bush-jungle, and very little game. All the grass had been eaten up by the immense herds which were in the country. Our camping-ground, however, was near some large trees, in an open space called Fahncoob, — a well-known halting-place of the Arabs, and with quite a park-like appearance. There was water in a kJior not very far off ; and we shot two or three gazelles, and so were enabled to supply the camp with fresh meat. The following day, before we had started, the sheik, his brother, and nine horsemen arrived ; most of the latter returned after they had had some coffee, but the rest of the party remained with us. We were informed that we were to spend the night near a Base village called Sogada ; and here it was necessary to interview the sheik before travelling any farther.

About an hour before encamping, we passed a well, near which we passed the night ; it was a very old one, very deep, and with an enormously wide mouth. To obtain water, it was necessary to scramble down the sides of it. We were told that no one knew how long it had been made, but that it was very ancient. I should think it must have been from two to three hundred feet deep, and I am quite certain it must have been built by a far more energetic people than either the Base or the Beni-Amers are at the present day. The inhabitants of these parts are deficient in all but the very simplest agricultural implements ; spades are unknown ; and, when they want to dig holes for wells, they do so with their hands alone.

All day long, women were engaged in filling their baskets at the well, and climbing, with them on their backs, up to the village of Sogada, which was a good large one,' and built, as usual, on a hill. It is astonishing what a weight of water these women will carry. Little boys and girls sometimes do the