We Had Now Six
Little Dependents, None Of Whom Could Ever Belong To Us, As They Were
All Slaves, But Who Were Well Looked After By My Wife; Fed, Amused, And
Kept Clean.
The boy Abbai was the greatest favourite, as, having neither
father nor mother, he claimed the greatest care:
He was well washed
every morning, and then to his great delight smeared all over from head
to toes with red ochre and grease, with a cock's feather stuck in his
woolly pate. He was then a most charming pet savage, and his toilette
completed, he invariably sat next to his mistress, drinking a
gourd-shell of hot milk, while I smoked my early morning pipe beneath
the tree. I made bows and arrows for my boys, and taught them to shoot
at a mark, a large pumpkin being carved into a man's head to excite
their aim. Thus the days were passed until the evening; at that time a
large fire was lighted to create a blaze, drums were collected, and
after dinner a grand dance was kept up by the children, until the young
Abbai ended regularly by creeping under my wife's chair, and falling
sound asleep: from this protected spot he was carried to his mat,
wrapped up in a piece of old flannel (the best cloth we had), in which
he slept till morning. Poor little Abbai! I often wonder what will be
his fate, and whether in his dreams he recalls the few months of
happiness that brightened his earliest days of slavery.
Although we were in good health in Shooa, many of the men were ill,
suffering generally from headache; also from ulcerated legs; - the
latter was a peculiar disease, as the ulcer generally commenced upon the
ankle bone and extended to such a degree that the patient was rendered
incapable of walking. The treatment for headache among all the savage
tribes was a simple cauterization of the forehead in spots burnt with a
hot iron close to the roots of the hair. The natives declared that the
water was unwholesome from the small stream at the foot of the hill and
that all those who drank from the well were in good health. I went down
to examine the spring, which I found beautifully clear, while the
appearance of the stream was quite sufficient to explain the opposite
quality. As I was walking quietly along the bank, I saw a bright ray of
light in the grass upon the opposite side; in another moment I perceived
the head of a crocodile which was concealed in the grass, the brightness
of the sun's reflection upon the eye having attracted my attention. A
shot with the little 24 rifle struck just above the eye and killed it;
- it was a female, from which we extracted several large eggs, all with
hard shells.
The shooting that I had while at Shooa was confined to antelopes; of
these there was no variety excepting waterbuck and hartebeest.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 305 of 343
Words from 158331 to 158830
of 178435
