The Girl Was Remarkably
Fat, And From The Wound, A Large Lump Of Yellow Fat Exuded.
No sooner
had she fallen, than the Makkarikas rushed upon her in a crowd, and
seizing the fat, they
Tore it from the wound in handfuls, the girl being
still alive, while the crowd were quarrelling for the disgusting prize.
Others killed her with a lance, and at once divided her by cutting off
the head, and splitting the body with their lances, used as knives,
cutting longitudinally from between the legs along the spine to the
neck.
Many slave women and their children who witnessed this scene, rushed
panic-stricken from the spot and took refuge in the trees. The
Makkarikas seeing them in flight, were excited to give chase, and
pulling the children from their refuge among the branches, they killed
several, and in a short time a great feast was prepared for the whole
party. My man, Mahommed, who was an eyewitness, declared that he could
not eat his dinner for three days, so great was his disgust at this
horrible feast.
Although my camp was entirely separate from that of Ibrahim, I was
dreadfully pestered by his people, who, knowing that I was well supplied
with many articles of which they were in need, came begging to my tent
from morning till evening daily. To refuse was to insult them; and as my
chance of success in the exploration unfortunately depended upon my not
offending the traders I was obliged to be coldly civil, and nothing was
refused them. Hardly a day passed without broken guns being brought to
me for repair; and having earned an unenviable celebrity as a gunsmith,
added to my possession of the requisite tools, I really had no rest, and
I was kept almost constantly at work.
One day Ibrahim was seized with a dangerous fever, and was supposed to
be dying. Again I was in request: and seeing that he was in a state of
partial collapse, attended with the distressing symptoms of want of
action of the heart, so frequently fatal at this stage of the disease, I
restored him by a very powerful stimulant, and thereby gained renown as
a physician, which, although useful was extremely annoying, as my tent
was daily thronged with patients, all of whom expected miraculous cures
for the most incurable diseases.
In this manner I gained a certain influence over the people, but I was
constantly subjected to excessive annoyances and disgust, occasioned by
the conduct of their party towards the Latookas. The latter were
extremely unwise, being very independent and ready to take offence on
the slightest pretext, and the Turks, being now 140 strong, had no fear,
and there appeared every probability of hostilities. I was engaged in
erecting huts, and in securing my camp; and although I offered high
payment, I could not prevail on the natives to work regularly. They
invariably stipulated that they were to receive their beads before they
commenced work, in which case they, with few exceptions, absconded with
their advanced payment.
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