In A Short Time I Had Many Applicants, To Whom I
Served Out A Quantity Of Holloway's Pills.
These are most useful
to an explorer, as, possessing unmistakeable purgative
properties, they create an undeniable effect upon the patient,
which satisfies him of their value.
They are also extremely
convenient, as they may be carried by the pound in a tin box, and
served out in infinitesimal doses from one to ten at a time,
according to the age of the patients. I had a large medicine
chest, with all necessary drugs, but I was sorely troubled by the
Arab women, many of whom were barren, who insisted upon my
supplying them with some medicine that would remove this stigma
and render them fruitful. It was in vain to deny them; I
therefore gave them usually a small dose of ipecacuanha, with the
comforting word to an Arab, "Inshallah," "if it please God." At
the same time I explained that the medicine was of little value.
On the following morning, during the march, my wife had a renewal
of fever. We had already passed a large village named Abre, and
the country was a forest of small trees, which, being in leaf,
threw a delicious shade. Under a tree, upon a comfortable bed of
dry sand, we wer obliged to lay her for several hours, until the
paroxysm passed, and she could remount her dromedary. This she
did with extreme difficulty, and we hurried toward Cassala, from
which town we were only a few miles distant.
For the last fifty or sixty miles we had seen the Cassala
mountain--at first a blue speck above the horizon. It now rose in
all the beauty of a smooth and bare block of granite, about 3,500
feet above the level of the country with the town of Cassala at
the base, and the roaring torrent Gash flowing at our feet. When
we reached the end of the day's march, it was between 5 and 6
P.M. The walled town was almost washed by the river, which was at
least 500 yards wide. However, our guides assured us that it was
fordable, although dangerous on account of the strength of the
current. Camels are most stupid and nervous animals in water;
that ridden by my wife was fortunately better than the
generality. I sent two Arabs with poles, ahead of my camel, and
carefully led the way. After considerable difficulty, we forded
the river safely; the water was nowhere above four feet deep,
and, in most places, it did not exceed three; but the great
rapidity of the stream would have rendered it impossible for the
me to cross without the assistance of poles. One of our camels
lost its footing, and was carried helplessly down the river for
some hundred yards, until it stranded upon a bank.
The sun had sunk when we entered Cassala. It is a walled town,
surrounded by a ditch and flanking towers, and containing about
8,000 inhabitants, exclusive of troops.
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