from Khartum to Fashoda
and farther. At present the river was blocked again and, being unable
to run freely, overflowed on both sides. The right and left banks of
this region were covered by a high jungle amid which stood hillocks of
termites and solitary gigantic trees; here and there the forest reached
the river. In dry places grew groves of acacias. During the first week
they saw Arabian settlements and towns composed of houses with strange
conical roofs made of dochnu straw, but beyond Abba, from the
settlement of Goz Abu Guma they rode in the country of the blacks. It
was nearly desolate, for the dervishes had almost totally carried away
the local negro population and sold it in the markets of Khartum,
Omdurman, Fasher, Dar, El-Obeid, and other cities in the Sudan, Darfur,
and Kordofan. Those inhabitants who succeeded in escaping slavery in
thickets in the forests were exterminated by starvation and small-pox,
which raged with unusual virulence along the White and Blue Niles. The
dervishes themselves said that whole nations had died of it. The former
plantations of sorghum, manioc, and bananas were covered by a jungle.
Only wild beasts, not pursued by any one, multiplied plentifully.
Sometimes before the evening twilight the children saw from a distance
great herds of elephants, resembling movable rocks, walking with slow
tread to watering places known only to themselves. At the sight of them
Hatim, a former ivory dealer, smacked his lips, sighed, and spoke thus
to Stas in confidence:

"Mashallah! How much wealth there is here! But now it is not worth
while to hunt, for the Mahdi has prohibited Egyptian traders from
coming to Khartum, and there is no one to sell the tusks to, unless to
the emirs for umbajas."

They met also giraffes, which, seeing the caravan, escaped hurriedly
with heavy ambling pace, swinging their long necks as if they were
lame. Beyond Goz Abu Guma appeared, more and more frequently, buffaloes
and whole herds of antelopes. The people of the caravan when they
lacked fresh meat hunted for them, but almost always in vain, for the
watchful and fleet animals would not allow themselves to be approached
or surrounded.

Provisions were generally scarce, as owing to the depopulation of the
region they could not obtain either millet or bananas, or fish, which
in former times were furnished by the Shilluk and Dinka tribes who
exchanged them willingly for glass beads and brass wire. Hatim,
however, did