XXII A FOOL OF A MESSENGER 245 



safety, fired a hurried volley, when unfortunately one 

 of the bullets struck, and lodged in, his left shin-bone. 

 He had been carried back to Denibea, where he lay 

 in great pain ; for they had not been able to extract 

 the bullet. Both Menelik's letter and my letter to the 

 Ras he had forwarded to Sinter, where the Ras was 

 staying, but without reading them, as they were not 

 addressed to him. By the hand of two of his men he 

 sent me a letter, asking me, if I were a doctor, to come 

 to him ; if not, at all events to send him some medicine, 

 to get the bullet out ! My man had proved himself a 

 perfect fool, for not only had he returned without any 

 answer to the letters addressed to the Ras, but his 

 mule having broken down on the way, he hired a man 

 to help drag it to Chelkar, at which place he had 

 left it, along with a saddle I had borrowed from Falukka, 

 the Gondar merchant. In reply to the Dedjatch's re- 

 quest I sent some antiseptics and a letter, telling him 

 how to use them ; but for myself there was nothing to 

 do but wait. 



Besides shooting for a few hours every day, I filled 

 up my time looking after and labelling my trophies, 

 writing up my journal, and in doctoring the natives, 

 who, I found, came in ever-increasing numbers as my 

 name as a great "medicine-man" spread, till my little 

 stock of drugs was being rapidly exhausted, and I 

 was reduced to all sorts of expedients in order to 

 give them something that at all events would do no 

 harm, and, by the exercise of faith, might even do good. 

 It was the hottest season of the year here, the natives 

 said ; and my camp being pitched on the market-place, 



