In such an atmosphere it is no wonder that miracles abound and holy men thrive. It is exceedingly difficult to know how to deal with them. Like the magicians of Ancient Egypt, whose descendants they are, they are sometimes open to the suspicion of establishing their miraculous reputation by natural but very undesirable methods. At Berber the Mudir was anxious to embellish the place with avenues of trees. So he imported some libbek acacias from Egypt, and to insure their being watered announced that rewards would be given to anyone in front of whose house a libbek was planted as soon as it attained a certain size. For a time all went well, and the trees grew and flourished. But then a local fakir saw his chance. He proclaimed that watering trees was contrary to the will of God, and threatened the most terrible penalties on anyone who dared to disregard his orders. Only one man, a sergeant in a black regiment, was bold enough to flout the fakir, and to continue watering his tree. Within a short time the man himself, his wife, and his servant, were all dead. It may have been a coincidence; it may have been the effect of imagination acting on uncultured minds; but far more probably, though it could not be proved, it was due to some wicked contrivance of the holy man. In the case of the Dongola fakir, a very practical solution of the difficulty was adopted. He was not punished, but facilities were given for his return to Timbuctoo. Guilty or not, a man whose reputation requires such bolstering up is a very undesirable resident. That the various judges and magistrates administer the law intelligently and with discretion, and that the people themselves are more and more contented with the law, and accept it even when it comes in conflict with old-established ideas, is shown by the decrease in the number of petitions to the Governor-General. In the Soudan, as in other Oriental countries, anybody who has a grievance is allowed to appeal directly to the highest authority, and as the Governor-General does a great deal of travelling every year, there is every facility for presenting them. At first they numbered several thousands every year, but in 1902 they sank to the comparatively small total of 600. But whilst every endeavour is made to govern the country on lines acceptable to and understood by the people, there are, of course, some points on which the policy of a civilized government is necessarily in opposition to very deep-rooted customs and habits to such a degree as to completely upset the old basis of social life. In a minor degree this is true of the partial application of the game laws to natives, but of far greater importance is our attitude towards the institution of slavery and the slave-trade.