— Ill —

tion on my part to attempt to deal with a question

that has been treated in so masterly a fashion by him who was of all others most qualified to form an

opinion on the subject (i).

All that I have essayed to do is to put on

record in English the strange adventures of a unique

personality, whose fame, perhaps, is not so well known as it deserves to be, except among the

cultured few in England who interest themselves in

African affairs, or the uncultured many in the

Southern Sudan by whom the name of Zubeir is still remembered with awe and veneration.

My sincere thanks are due to Lieut. General Sir

F. R. Wingate G.C.V.O. K.C.B., K.C.M.G., D.S.O., etc.,

and to Major General Sir Rudolf von Slatin G.C.V.O.,

K.C.M.G., C.B., etc. for much valuable assistance ; to Naoum Bey Shoucair for very kindly allowing me

to borrow wholesale from his "History of the Sudan",

as well as to Elia Effendi Atiya and Mohammed Bey Said, who devoted a great deal of their time to

helping me with the translation.

Finally, from those who find in what follows a

haphasard method of treatment, a slovenliness of

phrase, or incorrectness of diction I ask pardon. With the thermometer standing at io8° in the shade

it is no easy matter, in the moments snatched from

a slumberous afternoon, to pay that strict attention

to detail that dwellers in a more temperate clime seem to have the right to claim.

(i) See Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt Vol. i. ch. 25.