Hardly Were The Horses
Watered At A Well In The Dry Bed Of The Stream, When Aggahr Was
Taken Ill With Inflammation.
I left two men to attend upon him,
with orders to bring him on if better on the following day:
We
started on our journey, but we had not proceeded a quarter of a
mile when Gazelle, that I was riding, was also seized with
illness, and fell down; with the greatest difficulty I led the
horse back again to the village. My good old hunter Aggahr died
in great agony a few minutes after our return, and Gazelle died
during the night; the natives declared this to be the horse
sickness that was annually prevalent at this season. The disease
appeared to be inflammation of the bowels, which I attributed to
the sudden change of food; for months past they had lived
principally upon dry grass, but within the past few days they had
greedily eaten the young herbage that had appeared after a few
showers; with this, may have been poisonous plants that they had
swallowed unawares. We had now only one horse, Tetel, that was
ridden by my wife; I therefore determined to start on foot on the
following morning, and to set the pace at four miles an hour, so
as to reach the Rahad by a forced march in one rapid stretch, and
thus to eke out our scanty supply of water. Accordingly we
started, and marched at that rate for ten hours, including a halt
when half-way, to rest for one hour and a half.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 506 of 556
Words from 137702 to 137965
of 151461
