MERAWI IN 1897 of them sat the whole day in front of my hut ; they came about seven in the morning, and when I returned from the excavations about eleven they were still there ; I left them sitting on palm trunks when we resumed work at three, and in the evening I found them again. When the rdkuba was first built they used to come and sit on the little wall that ran round the court • but there were drawbacks to these assemblies, for they frequently left behind them most unwelcome visitors ; so we had a space cleared outside, the ground of which was swept and watered every morning, and we had some palm trunks brought for our visitors to sit on. This arrangement was much appreciated, for the men found they could sit down without soiling their garments. It was LEATHER rahdl, OR SUDANI GIRL'S DRESS.

interesting to note how their habits were gradually modified by clean surroundings. At first they came and sat down in their ordinary garb, which was full of dust and vermin, and with their feet caked with mud and sand. They saluted no one, and when they felt thirsty they went to my water-pot, and helped themselves without remark. Soon, however, they began to shake their garments before they sat down, and then they took to washing their feet in the water which ran past the hut, and finally they got into the habit of appearing in clean white garments ! We were visited by many strange folk, among others by a curious shrivelled old man, who was said to be a fiki, i.e., religious teacher. One day he brought his sheepskin with him, and throwing it on the ground in the rdkuba he knelt down and began to pray, among other things for the "Apostle of God, Abd-Allah the Khalifa." This 213