in our opinion is to send out a boundary commission to delineate
more exactly still just where Kowfat is. After that an ethnographical
survey might be completed."


It was a matter not only of concern but of surprise to me that not
one of the three contributions recited above was accepted by the
English Press. The Morning Post complained that my editorial was not
firm enough in tone, the Guardian that it was not humane enough, the
Times that I had left out the latitude and longitude always expected
by their readers. I thought it not worth while to bother to revise
the articles as I had meantime conceived the idea that the same
material might be used in the most delightfully amusing way as the
basis of a poem far Punch. Everybody knows the kind of verses that
are contributed to Punch by Sir Owen Seaman and Mr. Charles Graves
and men of that sort. And everybody has been struck, as I have, by
the extraordinary easiness of the performance. All that one needs is
to get some odd little incident, such as the revolt of the Sultan of
Kowfat, make up an amusing title, and then string the verses together
in such a way as to make rhymes with all the odd words that come into
the narrative. In fact, the thing is ease itself.

I therefore saw a glorious chance with the Sultan of Kowfat. Indeed,
I fairly chuckled to myself when I thought what amusing rhymes
could be made with "Negritos," "modus operandi" and "Dog Men of
Darfur." I can scarcely imagine anything more excruciatingly funny
than the rhymes which can be made with them. And as for the title,
bringing in the word Kowfat or some play upon it, the thing is
perfectly obvious. The idea amused me so much that I set to work
at the poem at once.