I Determined To Take The First Opportunity To Push
For Magungo.
The white men spoken of by Wani probably referred to Arabs,
who, being simply brown, were called white men by the blacks.
I was
called a VERY WHITE MAN as a distinction; but I have frequently been
obliged to take off my shirt to exhibit the difference of color between
myself and men, as my face had become brown.
The Turks had set June 23d as the time for their departure from Latooka.
On the day preceding my wife was dangerously ill with bilious fever, and
was unable to stand, and I endeavored to persuade the trader's party to
postpone their departure for a few days. They would not hear of such a
proposal; they had so irritated the Latookas that they feared an attack,
and their captain or vakeel, Ibrahim, had ordered them immediately to
vacate the country. This was a most awkward position for me. The traders
had incurred the hostility of the country, and I should bear the brunt
of it should I remain behind alone. Without their presence I should be
unable to procure porters, as the natives would not accompany my feeble
party, especially as I could offer them no other payment than beads or
copper. The rain had commenced within the last few days at Latooka, and
on the route toward Obbo we should encounter continual storms. We were
to march by a long and circuitous route to avoid the rocky passes that
would be dangerous in the present spirit of the country, especially as
the traders possessed large herds that must accompany the party. They
allowed five days' march for the distance to Obbo by the intended route.
This was not an alluring programme for the week's entertainment, with my
wife almost in a dying state! However, I set to work and fitted an
angarep with arched hoops from end to end, so as to form a frame like
the cap of a wagon. This I covered with two waterproof Abyssinian tanned
hides securely strapped, and lashing two long poles parallel to the
sides of the angarep, I formed an excellent palanquin. In this she was
assisted, and we started on June 23d.
On our arrival at Obbo both my wife and I were excessively ill with
bilious fever, and neither could assist the other. The old chief of
Obbo, Katchiba, hearing that we were dying, came to charm us with some
magic spell. He found us lying helpless, and immediately procured a
small branch of a tree, and filling his month with water he squirted it
over the leaves and about the floor of the hut. He then waved the branch
around my wife's head, also around mine, and completed the ceremony by
sticking it in the thatch above the doorway. He told us we should now
get better, and, perfectly satisfied, took his leave.
The hut was swarming with rats and white ants, the former racing over
our bodies during the night and burrowing through the floor, filling our
only room with mounds like molehills. As fast as we stopped the holes,
others were made with determined perseverance. Having a supply of
arsenic, I gave them an entertainment, the effect being disagreeable to
all parties, as the rats died in their holes and created a horrible
effluvium, while fresh hosts took the place of the departed. Now and
then a snake would be seen gliding within the thatch, having taken
shelter front the pouring rain.
The small-pox was raging throughout the country, and the natives were
dying like flies in winter. The country was extremely unhealthy, owing
to the constant rain and the rank herbage, which prevented a free
circulation of air, and the extreme damp induced fevers. The temperature
was 65 degrees Fahr. at night and 72 degrees during the day; dense
clouds obscured the sun for many days, and the air was reeking with
moisture. 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.
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