180 TO THE LAND OF THE NEGROID nine months, after his briUiant journey across Africa to what still was the land of the Dervish, then at his last hour of resistance.

In the centre was a large tree, which had fallen and looked hardly tidy. The reason that it was not cleared away was a spiritual one. In Maori parlance it was tapu, and dared not be touched without giving offence to the Sliilluks, who regarded it as representing the heart and centre of their nation.

Indeed, the sacred character of this spot was one reason for the continued occupation of Fashoda. The tree has been since cleared away, and a sapling was planted elsewhere. But the sapHng died, and, strangely enough, a shoot from the root of the old tree sprang up, so that the emblem of national existence bursts into new life. It is to be hoped that a savage appreciation of this event may not also involve administrative difficulties.

On the far side of the earthworks a solitary cross appeared, marking a grave, and looking lost and forlorn in the sweltering landscape ; and down by the side of the khor were the quarters of Egyptian employes, who, unfortunately, stand the climate but poorly. It is a strange fact that the Egyptian, accustomed to heat, albeit dry, undergoes the severity of Sudanese climate much less easily than does the European, and displays much less fortitude. One poor fellow had lost his wife many months before, and was ui great trouble because her relatives in Cairo required that her body should be transplanted to her native soil. His corre-