I
Agreed With The Sheik For The Erection Of A Comfortabie Hut For
Ourselves, A Kitchen Adjoining, And A Hut
For the servants, as
the heavy storms were too severe for a life under canvas; in the
meantime we sat
In our tent, and had a quiet chat with Florian,
the German.
He was a sallow, sickly-looking man, who with a large bony frame
had been reduced from constant hard work and frequent sickness to
little but skin and sinew; he was a mason, who had left Germany
with the Austrian Mission to Khartoum, but finding the work too
laborious in such a climate, he and a friend, who was a
carpenter, had declared for independence, and they had left the
Mission.
They were both enterprising fellows, and sportsmen; therefore
they had purchased rifles and ammunition, and had commenced life
as hunters; at the same time they employed their leisure hours in
earning money by the work of their hands in various ways.
Florian, being a stonemason, had of course built his hut of
stone; he was a fair blacksmith and carpenter, and was well
provided with tools; but his principal occupation was whipmaking,
from the hides of hippopotami. As coorbatches were required
throughout the country there was an extensive demand for his
camel-whips, which were far superior to those of native
manufacture; these he sold to the Arabs at about two shillings
each. He had lately met with a serious accident by the bursting
of one of the wretched guns that formed his sporting battery;
this had blown away his thumb from the wrist joint, and had so
shattered his hand that it would most likely have suffered
amputation had he enjoyed the advantage of European surgical
assistance; but with the simple aid of his young black lad,
Richarn, who cut off the dangling thumb and flesh with his knife,
he had preserved his hand, minus one portion.
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