There Was
Little Use In Remaining At Farajoke, Therefore I Returned To Obbo With
My Men And Donkeys, Accomplishing The Whole Distance (Thirty Miles) In
One Day.
I was very anxious about Mrs. Baker, who had been the
representative of the expedition at Obbo during my absence.
Upon my
approach through the forest, my well-known whistle was immediately
answered by the appearance of the boy Saat, who, without any greeting,
immediately rushed to the hut to give the intelligence that "Master was
arrived."
I found my wife looking remarkably well, and regularly installed "at
home." Several fat sheep were tied by the legs to pegs in front of the
hut; a number of fowls were pecking around the entrance, and my wife
awaited me on the threshold with a large pumpkin shell containing about
a gallon of native beer. "Dulce domum," although but a mud hut, the
loving welcome made it happier than a palace; and that draught of beer,
or fermented mud, or whatever trash it might be compared with in
England, how delicious it seemed after a journey of thirty miles in the
broiling sun! and the fat sheep and the fowls all looked so luxurious.
Alas! - for destiny - my arrival cut short the existence of one being;
what was joy to some was death to a sheep, and in a few moments the
fattest was slain in honour of master's return, and my men were busily
employed in preparing it for a general feast.
Numbers of people gathered round me:
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