THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN die on the slightest provocation. It is true that he is often perverse, vicious, and ill-tempered, but the fine animals which the Camel Corps rode showed what the beast could develop into when properly rested, fed, and watered. When travelling on a short allowance of water the animal closes every opening of his body, and as he only perspires behind the ears, no moisture escapes from him. He is easily frightened, and does very foolish things when in this state, and when his allowance of food has been insufficient or has not pleased him, his grumblings and bleatings are maddening ; but like his friend the ass he rarely deserves all the abuse which is often showered upon him. The stay at Merawi also enabled one to understand the policy which the Sirdar and his officers pursued in respect of the people they had conquered. One of the burning questions of the time was domestic slavery, and in the practical handling of this delicate subject General Rundle showed consummate tact. So soon as the English arrived, slaves were quick enough to find out that dealing in slaves was prohibited, and many of them promptly ran away from their masters, sometimes actually leaving the oxen standing idle on the water-wheels, and therefore the growing crops perished for want of daily watering. Many were married, but they left their wives and children behind to live as best they could, or starve. Most of the runaways escaped to comparatively distant places, where they loafed and begged, and some few succeeded in joining passing caravans. The result of this was that a good deal of land began to go out of cultivation, and the authorities had to consider the matter seriously, for many natives complained that, whilst the Dervishes who had robbed them of most things, had left to some of them a few slaves, the British had been the cause of the flight of such slaves as remained. An aged farmer at Tankasi told us that he once had forty slaves, who, with the help of some twenty bulls and cows to work the water-wheels, watered his fields and raised his crops. When the Dervishes came they carried off the young women and all his slaves except four, and left him only cattle sufficient to turn two water-wheels. When the British came to Dongola his remaining slaves ran away from him, and as the women of his house were old, there was no one left to water the crops, and 198 I