A STAMPEDE OF ELEPHANTS 



lips he dropped from his pedestal of hauteur and obeyed 

 my commands to the letter. Food troubles are often 

 settled in this way, and the chief who two minutes before 

 swore that there was no food to be had from his people, 

 on espying the sealing wax instantly succumbs, and, not 

 a bit abashed at his previous lying, informs you that the 

 food shall be forthcoming. A strange people are these 

 Congo natives. 



Four days later, between Aba and Faradje, P was 



down with fever and covered up in bed with all available 

 blankets, trying to sweat it out. I spent the afternoon 

 rambling around the outskirts of the village with a gun 

 and boy. Half an hour from camp I came upon a group 

 of natives wailing and moaning to such an extent that 

 I made sure that some one was dying. On approaching 

 the group curiosity led me to glance at the miserable 

 objects. As I did so the crowd gave way as though to 

 enable me to obtain an uninterrupted view. On a litter 

 of branches and leaves there lay a young man with a 

 ghastly open wound on his left leg in winch I could have 

 buried both of my fists ; it was covered with powdered 

 ash, and was very offensive. A woman was holding a 

 palm leaf over his head shading him from the sun and 

 occasionally driving away the flies that constantly 

 worried the wound. What must have been excruciating 

 agony was borne heroically by the young fellow, who lax- 

 there without a twitch, and attempted to speak with me 

 through my boy. I learnt that he had been bitten by 

 a wild hunting dog. All the time that I stood by, the 

 women moaned and wrung their hands, they seemed to 

 be suffering more than the young fellow himself. He had 

 been there for three days, so he said, and he knew that 

 he was to " sleep." I knew it too, for my offer of help 

 was refused in spite of my boy's endeavours to persuade 

 the people ; he told them of the great cures effected by 

 the white man's medicines, but they shook their heads 



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