38 IN A LAND DESERTED the sandy width to the sudden, steep rise on the eastern side, which holds in check the turbulent torrent of the rainy season.

A momentary stop before plunging into the gloom of the bush topping the bank showed one the lights of the Sudanese township, representing the last touch of civilization before entering the confines of a depopulated country returned to the domination of the wild beast. The candle-light uncertainly showed the foot-tracks of the camels winding for a mile toward the great baobab or tebeldi tree {Adansonia digitata) which marked the first camping-ground.

Good-byes had been said, the drunken cook lectured, and only the few short hours of the night preluded the departure on safaria.

Regeneration is the watchword of this province of Sennaar. In early days the seat of a barbarian civilization and a learning which even called votaries from far India, it fell upon evil times. The capital of the Fung kingdom of Sennaar, founded in the sixteenth century, it successfully resisted the Abyssinian forces in 1719, but later JNIehemet Ali reached out his conquering hand from Cairo, though suffering the loss of his son Ismail by treachery at Shendi in 1822. Egyptian forces held posts at Sennaar and Roseires, at which latter place may still be seen a battered band instrument of ante-Mahdi date.

Even in 1883 the Mahdists, under Ahmed Wad el Makashef, had besieged Sennaar town unsuccess-