AN ESCAPE IN THE DARK 



the arrow hit him in the front of the body. In an instant 

 we dashed outside and found the mule kicking and making 

 a great noise, for, as you see, it has been wounded. A 

 tierce fight took place, but we drove them off to their 

 homes ; many of them dropped their bows and ran. 

 See here, the bows they bring to fight us with are short, 

 and the arrows do not go far like ours ; and see, we had 

 guns, although not any powder. They did not wait for 

 the big bang, no, they ran when they saw us ; but not 

 before they had killed two of my men. We killed five 

 of theirs. Siro Arocco is very bad." 



The affair being apparently quite an intertribal one, 

 I did not interfere with Siro Arocco and his warriors ; 

 but had I had plenty of ammunition to spare I should 

 have been sorely tempted to teach him a lesson that he 

 would have remembered ; for it is wonderful what you 

 can do if the occasion calls for it with a gun and a box of 

 matches, in teaching natives a lesson not to interfere 

 with anything belonging to a white man. 



Katodawali and Monica had armed themselves with 

 bows and arrows obtained from Matuga's men, and now 

 presented almost as savage an appearance as the villagers ; 

 for they had dispensed with what scanty clothing they 

 had had. Fortunately the cases of stores had remained 

 intact, and were now lodged in a hut specially built by 

 the two boys in the centre of the village. I was taking 

 a hasty meal preparatory to resuming my journey, and 

 as I opened a tin of sardines, loud exclamations of sur- 

 prise came from the villagers when the little fish dropped 

 out of the tin on to the plate. I threw the tin down 

 close to the natives who stood gazing at me. With 

 shrieks and yells they tore off in all directions, for the 

 coming of fish out of a tin seemed to them the doing of an 

 evil spirit. Fancy a tin of sardines being responsible 

 for half a hundred people stampeding and shrieking as 

 though an army were pursuing them ! About ten a.m. 



219 



