86 SPORT BY THE RIVER placing of the tusk under tree-roots causes a notch to be eventually worn an inch or so from the extremity.

Two or three days would probably elapse before they came near the place again—indeed, it was probable that they would leave it severely alone ; so, after many miles' walk in the hope of coming up with them, pursuit was abandoned.

The sergeant {lunbasha) of police and his three or four men at Khor Galegu led, with the Sheikh of Galegu, solitary lives indeed. Their days were gladdened by two Hebes of dilapidated aspect, who must have been banished from the home community for their looks. A few reed huts sufficed for their protection from sun and beast ; the angaribs, clay water -pots, and gourds, their household goods.

Below was the patch of ground where grew a small supply of dhurra and the coarse melon which delights the native heart, and by the river-bed was the thick-foliaged and imposing tamarind-tree, which afforded shade and medicine, and provided a lookout post into the bargain.

Seventy miles or so from Singa, it constitutes the last post on the Binder, save the slavery post at Abu Ramleh, on the Abyssinian frontier. Eastward runs the Galegu through desolate country, far into the hills of Abyssinia, enclosing with the Dinder to the south a land unmapped, unknown, save to the few natives who guard too well the secret of the water-holes.

During the dry season these men remain here as