THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN illustration given on the plate opposite, which is made from a photograph by my friend the Inspector. I was unable to find out the name of the architect, and could therefore obtain no clue as to what building served him for the model. This, after all, is not important. It seems pretty certain that the builder, whoever he may have been, was acquainted with western methods, and with the general appearance of late Byzantine ecclesiastical edifices.

It is certainly the finest building of the kind in the Sudan. On the invitation of the shekh we entered the Kubba and walked round the large rectangular hall, which appeared delightfully cool and shady after the outside glare. In the middle were two raised tombs, one of Idris the Great, and the other of his brother. These were formerly covered over by a costly canopy, which the Dervishes seized and carried away, and the present shekh has not been able to afford another of the same kind. Round the hall were several graves, marked out by the palm branches and small earthenware cups which were laid upon them.

Everything in the hall was simple and primitive, and one could not fail to remember in connection with it Burton's description of the tomb of Muhammad the Prophet.

In the evening Mr. Crowfoot went to inspect the little school of Kubba Idris. The shekh led us out to a small shed near the Kubba, on the floor of which a smoky fire was burning. Squatted on the ground round the fire were seven or eight little boys, each with his head bent over a whitened board, which served the purpose of a slate, whereon were inscribed in black ink some extracts from the Kur'an, which the young student was trying to commit to memory. The children were rocking their bodies backwards and forwards, and straining their poor little eyes to read their texts by the uncertain firelight, and were striving hard to repeat correctly what they saw. The schoolmaster helped them out from time to time, but the strain on the minds and bodies of the little fellows must have been considerable. Next the boys stood up, and we could see their faces with tolerable clearness. The oldest was about ten years of age, but many were much younger, and it was hard not to question the wisdom of making such pinched little bodies work in this way by firelight. The large skull, pointed chin, and vacant face of one little boy seemed to me to betoken 460