INSANITY AND APPREHENSION 279 shot through the brain instantly dropped. Great was the joy of the Nuers, who aided in cutting it up and disposed of most of its meat ; and the servants having gone back to the steamer, carrying some of the meat and the skull, he tried to persuade the Sheikh to accompany him also. Great was his disagreeable surprise to see the effect of this kind proposition ; for the Nuer immediately started to waltz round him, jabbing his spear in a war-dance and in dangerous proximity. No amount of quiet expostulation had any effect, and it became very nearly a question as to whether it might not be necessary, in sheer self-defence, to shoot the raging black devil. He was left to his antics, and, on explanation being asked, it appeared the poor fellow was mad, and had got it into his head that the Government of the Madhi had returned, and that my friend's invitation was merely a ruse to decoy him on to the boat and enslave him. It is an illustration of how the horrid fear exists still, and one may marvel, indeed, not at the suspicion and shyness, but at the degree of readiness to respond to any kind of overture.

As our boat slowly drifted away from the shore, our dark friends made a last celebration of our short visit. The young men with the clubs and long spears rushed down the bank in a war-dance, crouching and darting alternately forward. JNIaidens stood with their arms round each other, and a crowd lined the river to bid us good-bye.

The journey downstream in my friend's boat was