While we were traversing the forest, I neither saw nor heard any bird except the guinea-fowl. The dried grass in which they wander was the only undergrowth. Usually the place was as still as a tomb. Of larger animals I saw none but antelopes, and not many of these. We halted for lunch in a small ravine, and the bees did not find us till we had nearly finished the meal. We “smoked” them with cigarettes, cigars, and a bonfire, to no purpose. Then we shifted our quarters, but they followed. All of us were stung, and we were not quit of them till we mounted our camels and outdistanced the swarms. We camped for the night among the mimosas about seven miles from the watering-place called Zeraf Zaid. I thought we had been delivered from the plague of insects, but I deceived myself. Our camp was stormed by hosts of small creatures—tiny beetles, flying ants, and the like. They thronged and crawled on one’s candle, one’s book, one’s face, and one’s hands, and I found it difficult to write my diary. Some of them—I do not know whether they were prompted by hunger or malignity—added insult to injury by biting us. On the morning of Christmas Day we started with our guns in advance of the convoy and bagged two brace of the usual poultry. I had not hitherto found the country unhealthy, though the climate tries one’s condition; but on this occasion I felt “out of sorts,” and was glad—for a wonder—to mount my camel after the tramp in the sunshine. At 9.30 we reached the village of Zeraf Zaid. Here a clean hut serves as a rest-house. We found the place pleasant and cool. Within it were trestle-beds, of the kind commonly used in the Soudan and called “angareebs.” Sir Samuel Baker has given a concise description of them: “The angareebs, or native bedsteads, are simple frameworks upon legs, covered with a network of raw hide worked in a soft state, after which it hardens to the tightness of a drum when thoroughly dry. No bed is more comfortable for a warm climate than a native angareeb with a simple mat covering; it is beautifully elastic, and is always cool, as free ventilation is permitted from below.”[18] I concur in this favourable opinion of the native bed, and hope that its value in cases of sickness or injury that are not serious may be brought to the notice of the medical authorities of the army. It would be easy to furnish tent-hospitals with this simple appliance in any part of the Soudan. We rested in contentment, and then lunched while the camels were watered. Our convoy started at noon, and we two hours later. We overtook the baggage at half-past three.