KUTCHUK ALL 175 retreat, that when Gessi Pasha carried Kutchuk AH, he found there 300 angerebs, or native beds, which had been left behind in the hurry of the retreat.

It was quite dark before we had crossed the river. A bad road brought us in an hour to Kutchuk Ali ; large fires were soon alight, and a good meal prepared for us. Gessi Pasha made the agent of the station eat with us, for fear of poison. At this place Yussef Bey, on one occasion during the war, had attempted to poison Gessi, having obtained the poison from Sultan Kayonga.

We did not leave Kutchuk Ali until the following afternoon, and so had time to see a little of its environs. It was formerly surrounded by large gardens and banana-groves, but although still an important place, it is now only a shadow of its former self. We had some splendid yams (Dioscona alata) here, weighing 60 lbs., and even more ; and the bamia {Hibiscus esculenhis) were very fine ; at nearly all the stations occupied by Arabs one finds this vegetable, but here it was unusually good.

Leaving Kutchuk Ali, two hours' good trot brought us to the river Waou, which joins the Djour some thirty miles lower down, and flows into the Bahr-el-Ghazel above Meshera-er-Eek. Between the station and the river there is a plateau 150 or 200 feet higher than the level of either river or station. On this plateau is a curious natural well, not very deep, but having a perpetual supply of