VII.] ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING. 89 



he was nnable to use his left hand for any ordinary purpose, July, 

 and it was much smaller than his right. As soon as he with- i^'^- 

 drew, I had a little visitor, about seven years old— a small Arab 

 boy whose mother was taking him to the coast to be educated, 

 his father having been killed in one of the fights with Miram- 

 bo. The boy was a perfect little gentleman, and behaved admi- 

 rably, and was much delighted with the pictures in some old il- 

 lustrated papers and a book on natural history Mdiich I showed 

 him. I heard afterward that he was very grieved at the thought 

 that such good people as the English must go to perdition for 

 drawing pictures of men. 



As he was leaving my tent, I heard the report of fire-arms in 

 the camp, and, running out, found that Sambo had been acci- 

 dentally shot in the head by my servant, Mohammed Malim, 

 with one of my Derringer pistols, which he had been cleaning 

 in his hut, and had reloaded. 



It appeared that, on returning with them to my tent, he was 

 caught hold of by Sambo, who was rather a " character," and 

 always skylarking, and a struggle ensued, in which one of the 

 pistols went off, and the bullet struck Sambo just outside the 

 eye. His skull proved so thick that the ball did no damage, 

 but only traveled along between the scalp and the bone, and 

 could be felt standing out in a lump at the back of his head. 

 It was soon cut out, and a little patching with diachylon plas- 

 ter mended his pate most satisfactorily. 



I put my servant under arrest, pending the investigation of 

 the case ; but some insolent ruffians came to me, demanding that 

 he should be put in chains, or otherwise they would shoot him. 

 This gross piece of impertinence annoyed me very much, so I 

 gratified their desire for seeing some one in chains by clapping 

 them in themselves. 



This affair delayed us another day, as I had to inquire thor- 

 oughly into the whole matter ; and so much lying and false tes- 

 timony was, I suppose and hope, never before heard in so short 

 a time. The chief, or rather lii^ advisers, also demanded four 

 doti as a fine for blood having been shed on his soil ; and al- 

 though I felt much inclined to refuse, I unwillingly paid, fear- 

 ing complications and delays. 



Hyenas came prowling and howling around our camp night- 



