INTRODUCTION ix these parts is perhaps a pachyderm, and certainly a lunatic.

To the Nile dwellers I add those in such headquarter stations as El Obeid, Kassala, and Wau. They have not, 'tis true, the continual steamers, but there are usually enough officers to raise a chukker at polo or make a set at tennis. At the worst there is a white man once and again to talk to. Leave is generally pretty sure to come their way after twelve months' labour.

The second class of the third category is composed of those who live in the " out-stations." They meet their kind when going or returning from leave, the granting of which depends on the exigencies of the service. Their houses are, as a rule, a couple of native tukls (huts), but as two-thirds of their time is employed in patrolling the country this does not affect them much. If a servant sickens, they must nurse him and replace him as best they can with a savage from some village. They live on tinned food, chickens, boiled or roast—the third class murghi of the Indian dak bungalow—or whatever they can shoot for the pot or the cook of the moment is able to improvise. They draw upon their imagination and call a lump of maltreated dough bread. If they sicken they have recourse to their bundle of medicines or native remedies, and, as a last resort, send a message to headquarters to ask the medico's advice. Should I go on I would be put down as a "grouser." If the intending bimbashi can be " choked " off, far better