FAME AS A DOCTOR 



thanking me he said, with the charming exaggeration 

 of the Oriental, that he would have been equally 

 gratified with much less, for a gift is soon forgotten, 

 but that the pleasure his acquaintance with me had 

 given him, and the pride he felt in having entertained 

 me, would never fade from his memory ! 



Although my relations with the natives had made 

 my stay at Gulola a very pleasant one, the camp itself 

 was an unhealthy one, owing to the swampy nature 

 of the soil and its low-lying situation. I had a great 

 deal of malaria to deal with among my men, and I 

 was also suffering myself from a slight return of 

 dysentery. Having been rather successful in dealing 

 with the ailments of my own men, my fame as a 

 doctor was spread abroad in the village and daily 

 many cases were brought to me for treatment ! On 

 one occasion a man, whom I had cured of a very mild 

 form of ophthalmia, came up and asked me for some 

 medicine for his mother. In reply to my questions 

 as to the symptoms of her illness, he answered that 

 she was growing very old, and he seemed very 

 disappointed when I told him that this was a malady 

 beyond my power to cure ! 



At last however, one morning, I left Gulola at 

 sunrise, leading the way with one guide, while 

 Mahommed Ali followed with the camels, accompanied 

 by his "body-guard." The latter was an extremely 

 minute individual, not five feet in height, but very 

 sturdily built ; he was a Galla slave captured 

 in war, but was now a freeman, though he still 

 worked for Mahommed Ali in return for his food. 

 He carried an ancient French rifle (a Fusil Gras 

 model 1873) ^^^ two cartridges. During the 

 three days that he accompanied my caravan he was 



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