The Greater Number Of Such People Are Of
Poor Estate, And Many Have Toiled On Foot From Immense Distances,
Suffering From Hunger And Fatigue, And Bringing With Them Not Only The
Diseases Of Their Own Remote Counties, But Arriving In That Weak State
That Courts The Attack Of Any Epidemic.
Thus crowded together, with a
scarcity of provisions, a want of water, and no possibility of
cleanliness, with clothes
That have been unwashed for weeks or months,
in a camp of dirty pilgrims, without any attempt at drainage, an
accumulation of filth takes place that generates either cholera or
typhus; the latter, in its most malignant form, appears as the dreaded
"plague." Should such an epidemic attack the mass of pilgrims
debilitated by the want of nourishing food, and exhausted by their
fatiguing march, it runs riot like a fire among combustibles, and the
loss of life is terrific. The survivors radiate from this common centre,
upon their return to their respective homes, to which they carry the
seeds of the pestilence to germinate upon new soils in different
countries. Doubtless the clothes of the dead furnish materials for
innumerable holy relics as vestiges of the wardrobe of the Prophet.
These are disseminated by the pilgrims throughout all countries,
pregnant with disease; and, being brought into personal contact with
hosts of true believers, Pandora's box could not be more fatal.
Not only are relics upon a pocket scale conveyed by pilgrims and
reverenced by the Arabs, but the body of any Faky who in lifetime was
considered unusually holy is brought from a great distance to be
interred in some particular spot. In countries where a tree is a rarity,
a plank for a coffin is unknown; thus the reverend Faky, who may have
died of typhus, is wrapped in cloths and packed in a mat. In this form
he is transported, perhaps some hundred miles, slung upon a camel, with
the thermometer above 130 degrees Fah. in the sun, and he is conveyed to
the village that is so fortunate as to be honored with his remains. It
may be readily imagined that with a favorable wind the inhabitants are
warned of his approach some time before his arrival.
Happily, long before we arrived at Sofi, the village had been blessed by
the death of a celebrated Faky, a holy man who would have been described
as a second Isaiah were the annals of the country duly chronicled. This
great "man of God," as he was termed, had departed this life at a
village on the borders of the Nile, about eight days' hard camel-journey
from Sofi; but from some assumed right, mingled no doubt with jobbery,
the inhabitants of Sofi had laid claim to his body, and he had arrived
upon a camel horizontally, and had been buried about fifty yards from
the site of our camp. His grave was beneath a clump of mimosas that
shaded the spot, and formed the most prominent object in the foreground
of our landscape. Thither every Friday the women of the village
congregated, with offerings of a few handfuls of dhurra in small
gourd-shells, which they laid upon the grave, while they ATE THE HOLY
EARTH in small pinches, which they scraped like rabbits, from a hole
they had burrowed toward the venerated corpse. This hole was about two
feet deep from continual scratching, and must have been very near the
Faky.
Although thus reverent in their worship, the Arab's religion is a sort
of adjustable one. The wild boar, for instance, is invariably eaten by
the Arab hunters, although in direct opposition to the rules of the
Koran. I once asked them what their Faky would say if he were aware of
such a transgression. "Oh!" they replied, "we have already asked his
permission, as we are sometimes severely pressed for food in the
jungles. He says, `If you have the KORAN in your hand and NO PIG, you
are forbidden to eat pork; but if you have the PIG in your hand and NO
KORAN, you had better eat what God has given you.'"
CHAPTER V.
A primitive craft - Stalking the giraffes - My first giraffes - Rare sport
with the finny tribe - Thieving elephants.
For many days, while at Sofi, we saw large herds of giraffes and
antelopes on the opposite side of the river, about two miles distant. On
September 2d a herd of twenty-eight giraffes tempted me at all hazards
to cross the river. So we prepared an impromptu raft. My angarep
(bedstead) was quickly inverted. Six water-skins were inflated, and
lashed, three on either side. A shallow packing- case, lined with tin,
containing my gun, was fastened in the centre of the angarep, and two
towlines were attached to the front part of the raft, by which swimmers
were to draw it across the river. Two men were to hang on behind, and,
if possible, keep it straight in the rapid current. After some
difficulty we arrived at the opposite bank, and scrambled through thick
bushes, upon our hands and knees, to the summit.
For about two miles' breadth on this side of the river the valley was
rough broken ground, full of gullies and ravines sixty or seventy feet
deep, beds of torrents, bare sandstone rocks, bushy crags, fine grassy
knolls, and long strips of mimosa covert, forming a most perfect
locality for shooting.
I had observed by the telescope that the giraffes were standing as usual
upon an elevated position, from whence they could keep a good lookout. I
knew it would be useless to ascend the slope directly, as their long
necks give these animals an advantage similar to that of the man at the
masthead; therefore, although we had the wind in our favor, we should
have been observed. I accordingly determined to make a great circuit of
about five miles, and thus to approach them from above, with the
advantage of the broken ground for stalking. It was the perfection of
uneven country.
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