The Shi links and their Chief Mek.

expei'itMiced luinter, l)ut lie could not g-et on with Haggi. The hitter knew the country well, and the natives respected him. AVheii he entered a Shulluk \allage the people rejoiced, because the game he shot provided them with food.

Some of the Shillnks are dependent on Egyi)t ; but others of them are not. It is most difficult to subdue the latter, since, on the arrival of troops they escape into the mountains with their cattle. Water is scarce in the district, and the springs are only known to the natives. Every means attempted by the authorities of Fashoda proved vain. The Shilluks have a Sultan for their head, whom they blindly obey ; he is distinguished by the title of Sheik, and is always Avandering about ; he several times entered Fashoda in disguise, and more than once the troops sought after him in vain. The father of the Sheik died in the prison of Fashoda after having been treacherously arrested. The governor of this town, a certain Kurd, protested friendship for him and induced him several times to come to Fashoda, where he always received the Sheik with much kindness, During one of these visits, while being served with coffee, four men fell upon him unexpectedly, bound him and threw him into a loathsome dungeon. Indignant at such baseness on the part of one he had believed his friend, the Sheik refused all nourishment and died after eight days, cursing the traitor. His son succeeded him, and his hatred of the Egyptians has since known no bounds ; he has always refused any treaty, pref ering his own death, and that of his adherents, to any act of submission. Hitherto it has been impossible to capture him ; he is informed of all that happens at Fashoda, where two of his sisters are married to two Egyptian officers ; his followers provide him with ammunition.

AYhile we were on our way to Fashoda, Haggi pointed out to me several of the Sheik's places of refuge, which made me think he umst be in commu-