Soldiering and Sport in Uganda 



recurrence, and ordered him to strike camp in the 

 middle of the night, and to march twenty miles to 

 make up for loss of time occasioned by his impudent 

 attempt to deceive me. 



That evening, having spent most of the afternoon 

 with my orderly, endeavouring to learn his language, 

 which was a dialect of the Nile valley, I wandered 

 up the Hoima Road trying to locate my position 

 with the help of my map. I had not gone far 

 before I was hailed by a native who seemed excited. 

 At first I thought he was pointing to some guinea- 

 fowl, so I sent him back to camp for my shot gun. 

 Then I discovered it was water-buck, so I told him 

 to hurry back and fetch my rifle. He was off like 

 an arrow at the mere suggestion of meat, and nobly 

 did the savage double, too; he would have won 

 any Marathon race. I would have risked a ten pound 

 note on it. 



Whilst waiting for his arrival my attention was 

 diverted to an extraordinary stump of an old prickly 

 pear growing in the middle of the road. I thought- 

 lessly plucked at it, and before I knew where I was 

 I was stung all over by infuriated wasps. And 

 sting they could! Up came the stalwart native, and 

 seeing my dilemma, quietly took off his scanty 

 clothing, and wrapping it round the stump, crushed 

 the wasps to death. He then showed me a handful 

 of dead ones with great glee, that I might feast my 

 eyes upon them to compensate me for the pain I 

 was suffering. Evidently the man had been badly 

 stung, but did not seem to notice it, or else deemed 



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