Europeans could not surpass. Native lads, some in
their early teens, clothed with little beyond a sense of their own
importance and "army ammunition boots," many sizes too big for their
feet, adjusted the fish-plates and put on the screw nuts. Then, for
those who bore the heavy burden of rails and sleepers and carried
material for the road bed, there were licensed fools, mummers, and
droll mimics, who by their antics revived the lagging spirits of the
gangs. There is an unsuspected capacity for mimicry in what are called
savage men. I have seen Red Indians give excellent pantomimic
entertainments, and aborigines in other lands exhibit high mumming
talent. In the railroad battalion there was an eccentric negro who was
a very king of jesters. From the Sirdar and the Khalifa downwards--for
he was an ex-dervish and had played pranks in Omdurman--none escaped
a parodying portrayal of their mannerisms. He imitated the tones of
their voice and twisted and contorted his face and body to resemble
the originals. Nothing was sacred from that mimic any more than from a
sapper. He showed us Osman Digna's little ways, and gave ghastly
imitations of trials, mutilations and executions by hanging in the
Mahdist camps. And these things were for relaxation, though maybe they
served as a reminder of the dervishes' brutal rule. There were
vexations and jokes of another sort for Major Girouard and those held
tightly responsible for the rapid construction and regular running of
the material trains, as indeed all trains were. When the line had been
laid beyond Abu Dis, for a time known as Rail-head, the camp and
quarters were moved on to the next station. Abu Dis sank in dignity
and population until only a corporal and two men were left to guard
the place and work the sidings. The desert railway being a single
track, frequent sidings are indispensable for the better running of
trains. All the control for working the system was vested in the Wady
Halfa officials. One night there came to them over the wires an
alarmist message to send no more trains to Abu Dis. It was the
corporal who urgently rang up his chiefs. What could it mean? Had they
deserted, or, more likely, were the dervishes raiding the district? A
demand was made from Wady Halfa for the corporal to explain what had
happened. His answer was naive, if not satisfactory: "The wild beasts
have come down from the hills, and we really cannot accept any trains
from any direction." "What do