106 WILD LIFE AMONGST BEASTIES yellower colour than the previous one, which was ruddy and ringed, but the shade made it difficult to judge.

Here we pitched our camp, as the ground was high, and shaded by two fine tamarind-trees (ardeb).

jNlustapha, still incapacitated by fe\'er, was given a drink composed of a decoction of the fruit, and retired to a broken rest ; and the full moon, here almost directly overhead, soon looked down on men snoring, chattering, praying, or singing, while the camels chewed aloud and the donkeys bellowed.

It is strange in what light esteem woman is held by the Arab. A beast of burden, a slave without a soul, she has no hope of reaching Paradise, though, to the Arab, Paradise without woman one would have thought impossible. She ministers to his wants and prepares his food, but she is of so small account that daughters are not reckoned as children, and in inquiring how many children there are in a family, the question is, " How many boys have you ?" "et I imagine that here, as elsewhere, feminine influence is a power not underrated by wise men.

The ever-ready Fadl el JNIullah, always so fond of a joke, was delighted at being styled "the white," as he plastered his thick-lipped mouth with the dry white powder of the tebeldi fruit, and repaid me by lighting a smoky fire of the perfumed talh wood between me and the camels. He inquired how many sons I had, and endeavoured to please me by ofttime repeating the name of my schoolboy son, saying : " Basil Eff'endi will come to the Sudan ;