CHAPTER IV SPORT BY THE RIVER Fadl el Mullah, the cheerful fool, was full of good intentions as a result of the prospect of a meat dinner. He filled my pockets with nabbuk fruit, and picked the grass ticks off my clothes before they had time to burrow their heads into my skin. It is somewhat of a puzzle to account for the existence of so many myriads when one estimates the chance of an individual tick finding a suitable lodging on the rare examples of mankind, and, comparatively speaking, none too numerous beasts, that pass within his limited reach.

Often the men picked for my inspection masses of the gum seen exuding from the bark of many of the acacias. This remains ungathered in this district, partly owing to the depopulation of the country, and also to the competition of the superior article yielded in Kordofan, where it provides an emormous industry.

In so many tropical countries, subject to intense alternations between drought and wet, or more or less to drought only, it is noticeable how inadequate 56