222 THE TASK OF ADMINISTRATION south to Luang Deng, the joint Mecca of Nuers and Dinkas, was a vivid example of this.

Awoi was reached next afternoon, after two hours' struggle through mud ; and at a morah (cattle kraal), on the eighth day from the start, an influential Sheikh, a relative of Diu, put in an appearance. This gentleman had apparently been sent to report on the strangers, and affected an attitude of scornful indifference—in fact, it suggested contempt for the small party of men who presumed to enter the country of Diu. His people naturally followed his lead, particularly as he also had the repute of being kugoor.

So the next day, while sitting with Belal, the interpreter, and making belittling comments on the "Turks," he was suddenly struck in the eye by the flash of intense light reflected from a mirror held in the hand of the object of his derision. He faltered and flinched, trying to show no distress as the brilliancy blinded him. His disparaging remarks ceased, and he endured it as long as he could ; but, after all, he was only human. His head fell from the glare, and, recovering himself after a moment, he rushed up to his tormentor, sang and yelled incantations in front of him, then shook hands in an ecstasy of admiration and fervour. Speaking in Nuer equivalent, he cried that the white man had proved himself greater kugoor than he, and that surely he carried a piece of his god in his pocket !

Thenceforth, as a matter of policy, he was submitted to treatment similar to that which he had