In The Evening It Was Always Necessary To Keep A Blazing Fire
Within The Hut, As The Floor And Walls Were Wet And Chilly.
The wet herbage disagreed with my baggage animals.
Innumerable flies appeared, including the tsetse, and in a few weeks the
donkeys had no hair left, either on their ears or legs. They drooped and
died one by one. It was in vain that I erected sheds and lighted fires;
nothing would protect them from the flies. The moment the fires were lit
the animals would rush wildly into the smoke, from which nothing would
drive them; and in the clouds of imaginary protection they would remain
all day, refusing food. On the 16th of July my last horse, Mouse, died.
He had a very long tail, for which I obtained A COW IN EXCHANGE. Nothing
was prized so highly as horses' tails, the hairs being used for
stringing beads and also for making tufts as ornaments, to be suspended
from the elbows. It was highly fashionable in Obbo for the men to wear
such tufts formed of the bushy ends of cows' tails. It was also "the
thing" to wear six or eight polished rings of iron, fastened so tightly
round the throat as almost to choke the wearer, and somewhat resembling
dog-collars.
For months we dragged on a miserable existence at Obbo, wrecked by
fever. The quinine was exhausted; thus the disease worried me almost to
death, returning at intervals of a few days. Fortunately my wife did not
suffer so much as I did. I had nevertheless prepared for the journey
south, and as travelling on foot would have been impossible in our weak
state, I had purchased and trained three oxen in lieu of horses. They
were named "Beef," "Steaks," and "Suet." "Beef" was a magnificent
animal, but having been bitten by the flies he so lost his condition
that I changed his name to "Bones." We were ready to start, and the
natives reported that early in January the Asua would be fordable. I had
arranged with Ibrahim that he should supply me with porters for payment
in copper bracelets, and that he should accompany me with one hundred
men to Kamrasi's country (Unyoro) on condition that he would restrain
his people from all misdemeanors, and that they should be entirely
subservient to me.
It was the month of December, and during the nine, months that I had
been in correspondence with his party I had succeeded in acquiring an
extraordinary influence. Although my camp was nearly three quarters of a
mile from their zareeba, I had been besieged daily for many months for
everything that was wanted. My camp was a kind of general store that
appeared to be inexhaustible. I gave all that I had with a good grace,
and thereby gained the good-will of the robbers, especially as my large
medicine chest contained a supply of drugs that rendered me in their
eyes a physician of the first importance.
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