THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN for payment. The scene was most picturesque, and when we saw women with small flocks standing there patiently waiting for their turn to water their animals, the sight recalled the story of the daughters of Jethro waiting at the well, and how Moses came and drew water for them and helped them to such purpose that they returned to their father before he expected them.

After we had visited the well there was nothing left to do but eat our meal and go to bed, but it was impossible to sleep, for the men at the well sang songs nearly all night, and during the few intervals when they ceased to sing, they talked with their friends who were THE DESERT WELL NEAR MASAWWARAT A§-|UFRA.

[From a photograph by Lieutenant S. F. Newcombe, R.E.

sitting round fires not far from the well, at the top of their voices. On the following morning Lord and I started early (Mr. Nevile had been obliged to leave the previous afternoon on business), intending to reach Wad Ba Nagaa by one o'clock, but though the track ought not to have been difficult to follow, we lost our way, and did not manage to strike the railway until about four o'clock ; we then found that to reach the station we had to ride some miles to the south, and therefore did not arrive at our starting place until sunset. We had been wholly in the dark as to the whereabouts of the railway, but fortunately for us a train passed on it towards Nagaa, and the smoke of the locomotive 330