220 THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
a cock fell from the loft in the middle of the night, and all 
attempts to quiet his outcries only made them the more 
terrible. 
The vermin became so exasperating that I had to strip 
nearly naked and sit over the fire so that I could better 
wage war on them. In the morning I was provided with 
guides to take the caravan around the mountains to the 
Galana River, and I was promised that when I reached the 
river I should be given porters to take me to Lake Abaya. 
Half-way to the caravan we encountered Haji Idris and a 
number of my boys, armed to the teeth, and on the war 
path, to fetch me from the Amara, as they feared I had 
been made prisoner. 
