As Fast As We Stopped The Holes, Others Were Made With
Determined Perseverance.
Having a supply of arsenic, I gave them an
entertainment, the effect being disagreeable to all parties, as the rats
died in their holes, and created a horrible effluvium, while fresh hosts
took the place of the departed.
Now and then a snake would be seen
gliding within the thatch, having taken shelter from the pouring rain.
The smallpox was raging throughout the country, and the natives were
dying like flies in winter. The country was extremely unhealthy, owing
to the constant rain and the rank herbage, which prevented a free
circulation of air, and from the extreme damp induced fevers. The
temperature was 65 degrees Fahr. at night, and 72 degrees during the
day; dense clouds obscured the sun for many days, and the air was
reeking with moisture. In the evening it was always necessary to keep a
blazing fire within the hut, as the floor and walls were wet and chilly.
The wet herbage disagreed with my baggage animals.
Innumerable flies appeared, including the Tsetse, and in a few weeks the
donkeys had no hair left, either on their ears or legs; they drooped
and died one by one. It was in vain that I erected sheds, and lighted
fires; nothing would protect them from the flies. The moment the fires
were lit, the animals would rush wildly into the smoke, from which
nothing would drive them, and in the clouds of imaginary protection they
would remain all day, refusing food. On the 16th of July my last horse,
Mouse, died; he had a very long tail, for which I obtained A COW IN
EXCHANGE. Nothing was prized so highly as horse's tails, the hairs being
used for stringing beads, and also for making tufts as ornaments, to be
suspended from the elbows. It was highly fashionable in Obbo for the men
to wear such tufts, formed of the bushy ends of cow's-tails. It was also
"the thing" to wear six or eight polished rings of iron, fastened so
tightly round the throat as to almost choke the wearer, somewhat
resembling dog-collars.
On 18th July, the natives held a great consultation, and ended with a
war-dance; they were all painted in various patterns, with red ochre and
white pipe-clay; their heads adorned with very tasteful ornaments of
cowrie-shells, surmounted by plumes of ostrich-feathers, which drooped
over the back of the neck. After the dance, the old chief addressed them
in a long and vehement speech; he was followed by several other
speakers, all of whom were remarkably fluent, and the resolution of the
meeting was declared "that the nogaras were to be beaten, and men
collected to accompany the Turks on a razzia in the Madi country."
Ibrahim started with 120 armed men and a mass of Obbo people on the
marauding expedition.
On the following day Katchiba came to see us, bringing a present of
flour. I gave him a tin plate, a wooden spoon, the last of the tea-cups,
and a tinsel paper of mother-of-pearl shirt buttons, which took his
fancy so immensely, that my wife was begged to suspend it from his neck
like a medal. He was really a very good old fellow - by far the best I
have seen in Africa. He was very suspicious of the Turks, who, he said,
would ultimately ruin him, as, by attacking the Madi tribe, they would
become his enemies, and invade Obbo when the Turks should leave. Cattle
were of very little use in his country, as the flies would kill them; he
had tried all his magic art, but it was of no avail against the flies;
my donkeys would all assuredly die. He said that the losses inflicted
upon the various tribes by the Turks were ruinous, as their chief means
of subsistence was destroyed; without cattle they could procure no
wives; milk, their principle diet, was denied them, and they were driven
to despair; thus they would fight for their cattle, although they would
allow their families to be carried off without resistance; cattle would
procure another family, but if the animals were stolen, there would be
no remedy.
Flies by day, rats and innumerable bugs by night, heavy dew, daily rain,
and impenetrable reeking grass rendered Obbo a prison about as
disagreeable as could exist.
The many months of tiresome inaction that I was forced to remain in this
position, I will not venture to inflict upon the reader, but I will
content myself with extracts from my journal from time to time, that
will exhibit the general character of the situation.
"Aug. 2d. - Several of my men have fever; the boy, Saat, upon receiving a
dose of calomel, asked, `whether he was to swallow the paper in which it
was wrapped?' This is not the first time that I have been asked the same
question by my men. Saat feels the ennui of Obbo, and finds it difficult
to amuse himself; he has accordingly become so far scientific, that he
has investigated the machinery of two of my watches, both of which he
has destroyed. I am now reduced to one watch, the solitary survivor of
four that formed my original family of timekeepers. Having commenced as
a drummer, Saat feels the loss of his drum that was smashed by the
camel; he accordingly keeps his hand in by practising upon anything that
he can adapt to that purpose, the sacred kettle inverted, and a tin cup,
having been drummed until the one became leaky, and the bottom of the
other disappeared.
"Saat and the black woman are, unfortunately, enemies, and the monotony
of the establishment is sometimes broken by a stand-up fight between him
and his vicious antagonist, Gaddum Her. The latter has received a
practical proof that the boy is growing strong, as I found him the other
day improving her style of beauty by sitting astride upon her stomach,
and punching her eyes with his fists, as she lay upon the ground
furrowing Saat's fat cheeks with her very dirty nails.
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