36 IN A LAND DESERTED Shikaris and guides are naturally engaged in the country visited.

The methods of travelling to Singa, the point of departure from the Blue Nile when following the Dinder upstream, are three in number. Up to December, or perhaps a little later, it can be reached by steamer ; but this being earlier than most people would care to arrive, the alternative routes are by camel along the Blue Nile, the whole distance of 270 miles, or by steamer to Hillet Abbas (in the near future by rail on part of each route), thence on the camels, already ordered to be in attendance there, across the Ghezireh to Singa, only ninety-five miles away.

It was this route which I followed, and which proved a useful preparation for the subsequent journey, after good friends in the country, whose assistance was invaluable, and to whom many thanks are due, had been left far behind.

How many African travellers, when seated carelessly by the home fireside, allow their thoughts to wander back to the red embers of the camp-fire, the grey, ghostly forms of skeleton trees, the white cone of mosquito-curtained bed, and the motionless excrescences of shadow, denoting the resting camels or their dusky drivers ? How inconsequentially, at odd moments during the night, occurs the sleepytoned chatter of one camp-follower to another, a camel's grumble, or the far weird sounds of wild nature. The breeze fans the cheek, the stars are brilliant ; above and around is darkness, the abode