AVith Flashlight and Rifle -^ 



the thirsting Kuropean is incapable ot dri\'ing away the 

 obsession of the thought of water. 



Water ! I feel clearly how tlifhciilt it is to depict real, 

 serious, burning, terrible thirst to those who, like most 

 Europeans, have never felt it. The pangs increase as 

 the temperature rises, for the scorching sun and the dry 

 warmth cause the body to perspire and thus lose what it 

 has of moisture. Ouieth' encamped in the shade, one 

 can, of course, endure thirst tor much longer than when 

 on the march. But we have a proverb, " Staying in 

 •camp finds no water," and so thirsty men have often to 

 keep on the march. 



It is said that the Mahdi did his enemies to death 

 by starving them, but not de})riving them of water. 

 Under normal conditions, it appears that with this treat- 

 ment the death-agonies do not set in until the seventeenth 

 day. From that day onward the Mahdi, with his suite, 

 used to appear in the cells, so as to amuse himself with 

 the last agonies of his opponents. 



Thirst can kill, though, according to conditions of 

 temperature, in two, or at the most, three days, as I 

 have unfortunately proved by e.xperience. Under un- 

 favourable conditions, indeed, a single very hot day may 

 suffice to bring even an unladen native to the end ot 

 his tether. 



Three times have I sufTered realK' badly from want 

 ■of water. The first time, the caravan had been delayed 

 in the neighbourhood of Nguruman and Nguaso-Nyiro 

 for some days, on account of warlike operations. I had 

 spent the whole day on the velt, hunting and making 



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