CHAPTER XXV.

Life at Dongola Building straw huts The town The bazaar.

IT would probably bore the reader even more intensely to read than it would myself to write what happene< every day for the next three months, it was so vei uninteresting. The fact was we simply vegetated, and with the exception of one or two little incidents that attracted our attention occasionally, nothing ol any importance occurred till we went down-stream for good and all.

As to work for the men, there was nothing to be done except building straw huts, and attending one parade a day. Since there was no material handy to make huts with, V D was told off, with a crew of eight men and the interpreter, to cruise about the river in a whaler, and buy poles and dhurra straw to make them with. The wily old Arab sheikhs had long ago made up their minds that the Ingleezi were