cked and fissured by the annual overflow. Both these conditions
made it hard for cavalry, and still more for artillery, to move freely;
and the difficulties were complicated by frequent holes and small khors
full of long grass.

Amid such scenes the squadrons moved cautiously forward. Having made the
ground good for fifteen miles from Hudi, Colonel Broadwood halted his
force at Abadar, an old fort, and sent one squadron under Captain Le
Gallais seven miles further. At two o'clock this squadron returned,
having met a few of the enemy's scouts, but no formed bodies. While
the force watered by turns at the river Captain Baring's squadron
was extended in a line of outposts about a mile and a quarter to the
south-east. But the reconnoitring squadron had been followed homeward by
several hundred Dervish horsemen. Creeping along through the dense bush
by the bank and evading the vedettes, these suddenly fell on the picket
line and drove in all the outposts. In this affair eight troopers were
killed and seven wounded. Thirteen horses were also lost, as, having rid
themselves of their riders on the broken ground, they galloped off after
the Arab mares on which the Dervishes were mostly mounted.

The news of an attack on Adarama was received on this same afternoon. It
appeared that the Arabs had been repulsed by the Abyssinian irregulars
raised by Colonel Parsons. Glowing details were forthcoming, but I do
not propose to recount the Homeric struggles of the 'friendlies.' Little
in them is worthy of remembrance; much seeks oblivion.

For more than a week the Anglo-Egyptian force remained halted at
Ras-el-Hudi, waiting for privation to demoralise Mahmud's army or to
exasperate him into making an attack. Every morning the cavalry rode out
towards the enemy's camp. All day long they skirmished with or watched
the Baggara horse, and at night they returned wearily to camp. Each
morning the army awoke full of the hopes of battle, waited during the
long hours, and finally retired to sleep in deep disgust and profound
peace. And while the army halted, the camp began to assume a more homely
appearance. The zeriba grew stronger and thicker, the glacis wider, the
field kitchens more elaborate, the pools of the Atbara more dirty.
Over all the sun beat down in merciless persistence, till all white men
quivered with weary suffering when in the open air, and even under the
grass huts or improvised tents the temperature always registered 115 deg