BARA 7

needed something to take one's thoughts off one's

condition, for chasing shade is a most comfortless

occupation. One hes on its near edge, but in a very

short time the sun has carried it right across and one

must take up one's belongings, place them on the new

shade and wait for it to swing across again, and

so on.

Near this mountain I shot my first head of big

game. It was not very big, just a Dorcas gazelle,

but I was as pleased as a dog with two tails. The

grass about was coarse, about two feet high, with

thorn-bushes scattered here and there. On the road we overtook a Darfur sheikh, whom I afterwards met

several times in El Obeid as he passed backwards and

forwards on embassies. I hope yet to pay him a visit,

as he has invited me to do, at El Fasher.

At Bara, to the north of El Obeid, we found two Companies of the Camel Corps. Unfortunately the

British officer was away. We halted in a lemon grove,

a relic of the pre-Mahdist days when Bara was a very

important town, the ruins of which lie scattered in the

surrounding bush.

We reached El Obeid in the evening of our eleventh

day, and found there El Lewa (General) Mahon Pasha,

C.B., D.S.O., with several other officers and officials. We just escaped being laughed at for the time we had

taken over the journey—but only just.

As we approached the place we were much puzzled

by what appeared to be wheel-tracks, as wheel traffic

was almost unknown, save for guns, in the Sudan.

For building purposes in this part of the country any