40 IN A LAND DESERTED So now the thousands of square miles ahead are but sparsely populated for the first few miles, and thereafter are merely names of habitations long disappeared, and subsisting only in memory or tradition.

Architectural landmarks in African history, apart from those under Egyptian influence, the foreign buildings of Zimbabwe in Mashonaland, and the more substantial Arab structures in the Western Sudan and Nigeria, are practically nonexistent. Mud walls, if not continually repaired, are washed away by tropical rains, and honeycombed by bees or the busy mason-wasp. Wood falls a prey to termites and to rot, and the disappearance of mankind is followed with startling speed by the obliteration of all trace of his dwelling. Thus we are debarred from a great aid in the tracing of racial movements and origin.

It is unnatural and distasteful to rise before dawn, and the stifled yawns of the awakening Arabs annoy one. But the grumbling of camels and restlessness of a stirring camp rouse one effectually, and toilet is completed en plein air. Oh, the freshness of it 1 No confinement between four walls, no restricted atmosphere, the birds begiiming to call around one, life awakening everywhere, one feels thus part and parcel of the world of living creatures, not a detached, imprisoned being, half bereft of the senses we were originally provided with, through sheer lack of opportunity to use.

The whole company is Arab, but Arab of various