72 SPORT BY THE RIVER leaky roofs as well as may be, while the wild beasts may be pitied ! It is the elephant, judging from his tracks, who appears to feel least inconvenience, for the deep-sunk holes show that he wanders far and wide.

Fortunately for man • and the softer - skinned animals, though the rain comes as a deluge, it does not last long at a time, and there are intervals of bright sunshine. The rank grass doubtless forms some kind of protection to such fragile creatures as oribi, but one would expect the wart-hogs to be droATied in the holes they find cover in during the winter.

The wart-hog is a common beast in many parts of the Sudan. Of ugly heads, his is the ugliest ; dark slatey-brown in colour, he is disfigured by an excrescence on either cheek behind the curling, protruding tushes. Right in my path, from around a bush, one early morning came a great proud-looking beast, with his huge head and fore-quarters, proudlooking from the front, but shrinking into commonplace insignificance at the rear. When wounded, with all the obstinate pertinacity of the race, they are no mean antagonists, and their sharp tushes are formidable weapons. They do not appear to be excessively gifted with powers of sight, or else are too engrossed in thought to pay heed to external surroundings ; for on occasion I have seen one unconsciously approach, and, waiting for him, have gently called, much to the amusement of my followers, " Ta allah hena" (Come here), until