THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN mist disappeared, the moon rose, and it became bitterly cold.

Blankets and rugs were powerless to keep in the warmth, and at length we lit a fire in the bottom of the boat and huddled over it. The captain, finding it too cold to sleep, pushed out into the stream, and we floated quietly down the river, over which silence brooded. The scene was one of real beauty, for hills, and desert, and palms stood out with intense sharpness under the wonderful Sudan moonlight, and it was they that seemed to be in motion, and not ourselves. The only sounds audible were those made by some animal in coming down from the desert to drink at the river.

We were all too cold, however, to enjoy the scene thoroughly, and it was with thankfulness that we saw the blue-black of the sky before dawn change to that wonderful tint which heralds the day. A slight mist again appeared on the river, and the palms loomed out of it like shadowy phantoms as we slid by their roots.

After what appeared to be hours of waiting, the sun appeared, and in a very short time we began to feel the benefit of his heat.

About eight o'clock we tied up near the village of Suwarda, and I at once made enquiries for the Inspector, and found that he had not arrived there on the previous evening. A little later, however, he appeared, and I heard his adventures. As already stated, he started from Sulb for Suwarda on foot, meaning to ride part of the way, and to arrive at the latter place in the evening in time for dinner with me. He found the distance longer than he imagined, and when night came he was several miles from Suwarda, and was hungry and thirsty, and very tired. The only provisions he had with him were a few dates and three cigarettes ! He stayed in a wretched village for the night, and the natives made some bread from dhurra for him, but it vvas so dark and heavy that he could not eat it, although there was absolutely nothing else to be had. When he tried to sleep in the hut which the natives gave him, he was so cold and hungry that he could not do so, and so passed a miserable night. It is almost impossible for a European who has not travelled through this part of the Sudan to realize the bareness of the villages and the poverty of their inhabitants. Each man grows just enough dhurra for his own needs, and every kantar of dates he can possibly spare he sells ; meat is, of course, exceedingly scarce, for 452