FIREWORKS AT KHARTOUM. 321 tants of the new country tliey were approaching were in reality cannibals, they would not trouble to provide themselves with other food.

While we were in Khartoum it was the great eight-day feast of the Moslems, during which tents are fitted up for each department of the Government. War, Finance, Home, etc., each have one gaily decorated with flags and lamps, and the heads of departments pay each other visits in these tents every night. One evening we went with Giegler Pasha the round of visits, and partook of coffee and sherbet with each official. The band plays every night, and the festivities are, I believe, kept up until a late hour. On the last night the Government gave a grand display of fireworks for the entertainment of the populace. The fireworks were very good, and the Waganda were nearly wild with delight.

We left Khartoum on February 28, our good friends coming down to the steamer to see us oft'.

It was very crowded, and on this account we were glad when the six days' voyage to Berber was accomplished. The shooting of the sixth cataract of the Nile is a matter of great difficulty ; the course is so tortuous and the current so swift that, although there were four men at the helm, we had a very narrow escape, being carried within a few feet of a rock. Many boats had been lost here, and we saw the masts of two which had sunk a few days previously.

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