272 "AHAI OW MAZADA !

that my collar-bones did not jut out like the hipbones of a starved ox, as did theirs, seemed to excite admiration and envy.

The terror of one dear old lady when she set eyes on me first is for ever unforgettable. For seventy years this wrinkled and wasted old thing must have lived amongst ordinarily coloured skins, and now was fated to confront the ghastly sight which a white face presented. Mere ansemia in no way came near it ; the corpse-like hue of her ashcoloured sons paled— I should say darkened—beside it. Sick with horror, she clasped her head in both hands, turned away with wild shrieks, and covered her face, which to me was a matter of considerable comfort, it not being beautiful.

It was interesting, too, to try the effect of foods on their uncultivated tastes. Great curiosity was evinced as to my methods of eating, and small crowds stood by on the shore, remarking on the strange methods in use by the white man on board. Sugar was an abomination to them, save after a while to the usual small boy. The puff biscuits, of which there are too many in Huntley and Palmer's " mixed " tins, were tasted gingerly, and then thrown away. These are particularly useful in the Sudan for the purpose of creating a thirst when the heat is insufficient, and I perfectly appreciated the action of these Nuers when, in their endeavour to lubricate their desiccated throats, the poor victims proceeded to lower the level of the river. Fish rissoles received but scant apprecia-