go THE DOWNFALL OF THE DERVISHES from the heat, vast quantities of it were thrown away ; and I noticed that the line of railway was often marked for hundreds of yards with tins of “bully” beef more or less full, which were speedily pounced upon by Arabs, if any village chanced to be close at hand.

Occasionally the Tommies got rations of fresh meat, and, what was almost more welcome, fresh bread, with now and then the additional luxury—oh, blissful moment !—of a little marmalade. Once a week, too, a tot of rum was served out, and happy was the orderly whose task it was to convey the rum rations — to his superiors; for the officers rarely drank the fiery spirit, and when it was given back it was not wasted. This small weekly allowance was the only strong drink which Tommy Atkins imbibed throughout the campaign. The deadly effects of alcoholic excess in a climate like that of the Sudan are, of course, well known, and in a previous campaign the danger of allowing the men the use of intoxicants had been so unpleasantly demonstrated in the case of a certain British battalion, that the Sirdar very wisely established a system of ‘total prohibition” amongst the rank and