This Branch, Thus Blessed
With Holy Water, Was Laid Upon The Ground, And A Fowl Was Dragged Around
It By The Chief; And Our Horses Were Then Operated On Precisely In The
Same Manner As Had Been Enacted At Farajoke.
This ceremony completed, he
handed the branch to his brother (our guide), who received it with much
gravity, in addition to a magic whistle of antelope's horn that he
suspended from his neck.
All the natives wore whistles similar in
appearance, being simply small horns in which they blew, the sound of
which was considered either to attract or to drive away rain, at the
option of the whistler. No whistle was supposed to be effective unless
it had been blessed by the great magician Katchiba. The ceremony being
over, all commenced whistling with all their might; and taking leave of
Katchiba, with an assurance that we should again return, we started
amidst a din of "toot too too-ing" upon our journey. Having an immense
supply of ammunition at Latooka, I left about 200 lbs. of shot and ball
with Katchiba; therefore my donkeys had but little to carry, and we
travelled easily.
That night we bivouacked at the foot of the east-side of the pass at
about half-past five. Ibrahimawa, the Bornu man whom I have already
described as the amateur botanist, had become my great ally in searching
for all that was curious and interesting. Proud of his knowledge of wild
plants, no sooner was the march ended than he commenced a search in the
jungles for something esculent.
We were in a deep gorge on a steep knoll bounded by a ravine about sixty
feet of perpendicular depth, at the bottom of which flowed a torrent.
This was an excellent spot for a camp, as no guards were necessary upon
the side thus protected. Bordering the ravine were a number of fine
trees covered with a thorny stem creeper, with leaves much resembling
those of a species of yam. These were at once pronounced by Ibrahimawa
to be a perfect god-send, and after a few minutes' grubbing he produced
a basketful of fine-looking yams. In an instant this display of food
attracted a crowd of hungry people, including those of Ibrahim and my
own men, who, not being botanists, had left the search for food to
Ibrahimawa, but who determined to share the tempting results. A rush was
made at his basket, which was emptied on the instant; and I am sorry to
confess that the black angel Saat was one of the first to seize three or
four of the largest yams, which he most unceremoniously put in a pot and
deliberately cooked as though he had been the botanical discoverer. How
often the original discoverer suffers, while others benefit from his
labours! Ibrahimawa, the scientific botanist, was left without a yam,
after all his labour of grubbing up a basketful. Pots were boiling in
all directions, and a feast in store for the hungry men who had marched
twenty miles without eating since the morning.
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