In This Way
The Hunters Assisted Him; At The Same Time They Struck Downwards
With Their Spears At The Determined Brute, Until They At Last
Drove It From Its Hold.
Upon gaining the shore, they found that
the flesh of the leg from the knee downwards had been stripped
from the bone, and the poor fellow shortly died.
"October 11.--The Arabs have murdered one of the Egyptian
soldiers, about five miles from Sofi. All my people are more or
less ill, but we, thank Heaven, are in excellent health; in fact,
I have never been better than in this country, although I am
constantly in hard exercise in the burning sun.
"October 15.--A fine breeze, therefore I set fire to the grass in
all directions, which spread into a blaze over many miles of
country. The fire immediately attracts great numbers of
fly-catchers and buzzards; these hover in the smoke to catch the
locusts and other insects that escape from the heat. Buzzards are
so exceedingly bold, that it is one person's special duty to
protect the strips of flesh when an animal is being cut up, at
which time many scores collect, and swoop down upon their prey
clutching a piece of meat with their claws, if left unguarded for
a moment. Upon one occasion, the cook had just cleaned a fish of
about a pound and a half weight, which he laid upon the ground
while he stooped to blow the fire; in an instant a large buzzard
darted upon it, and carried it off.
"Africa may have some charms, but it certainly is rather a trying
country; in the rainy weather we have the impenetrable high
grass, the flies, and the mud; when those entertainments are
over, and the grass has ripened, every variety of herb and bush
is more or less armed with lances, swords, daggers, bayonets,
knives, spikes, needles, pins, fish-hooks, hay-forks, harpoons,
and every abomination in the shape of points which render a
leather suit indispensable to a sportsman, even in this hot
climate. My knickerbockers are made of the coarse but strong Arab
cotton cloth, that I have dyed brown with the fruit of the Acacia
Arabica; but after a walk of a few minutes, I am one mass of
horrible points from the spear grass, for about a foot from the
upper part of my gaiters; the barbed points having penetrated,
break off, and my trousers are as comfortable as a hedgehog's
skin turned inside out, with the 'woolly side in.'
"I long for the time when the entire country will be dry enough
to burn, when fire will make a clean sweep of these nuisances.
"October 17.--The sheik and several Arabs went to the Settite to
sow tobacco; they simply cast the seed upon the sandy loam left
by the receding river, without even scratching the soil; it is
thus left to take its chance. I accompanied him to the Settite,
and came upon the tracks of a herd of about fifty elephants that
had crossed the river a few days previous.
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