THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN for a redress of their wrongs, and some went so far as to claim that the losses which they had suffered in every way through the Dervishes should be made good. In all cases careful examination of the claims were made, and it is satisfactory to be able to say that the people were generally satisfied with the decisions which were arrived at by the authorities. General Rundle had not only to command the Frontier Field' Force, but he had to create and work a new civil administration at Merawi, with a staff wholly inadequate for the purpose. Still, substantial justice was done, and the natives quickly realized that their new rulers were impartial and not amenable to bribes.

In order to arrive at a decision in one case the General determined to pay a visit to a certain local shekh so as to obtain some necessary information. The shekh lived some miles distant, and the General decided to take with him Slatin Pasha and other officers, and to go by river to his village.

I was invited to form one of the party, and we all went down the river in the launch. A messenger had been sent on in the morning to warn the shekh that the General was coming, and to tell him to be in attendance. When we arrived we found some fifty or sixty men drawn up on the river bank, each wearing a long garment of some dark-coloured cotton stuff, and a clean white turban neatly twisted. Many of them were grey-bearded, and each man stood in the dignified attitude which is characteristic of the native when assisting at any solemn function. The shkh received the General with many warm words of welcome, and then Slatin Pasha, whose history every man knew, was accorded an ovation. When the business which occasioned the visit had been discussed, the General made his way towards the launch, accompanied by the shekh and Slatin. Then the shekh made a little speech to the General which was of singular interest, for it threw much light on the difference which he had noted between the old and the new regimes. " Formerly," he said, " when a " high Government official came to visit my father, all the women " in our harhns fled to the fields, and every slave who could get out " of the way did so. When the official arrived he at once demanded " grain and dates for his followers, and we were obliged to kill sheep " and feed all his party. We had to make him presents of donkeys, 200 i