REPTILES 293 



continued to within half-an-hour of his death. He frequently 

 pressed both his sides in pain and clutched at my arm. A 

 spasm seized his throat, as if he were suffocating. The whole 

 body rapidly became icy-cold, in spite of friction and other 

 artificial means of keeping it warm. A cold sweat covered head 

 and chest. The power of speech was then lost, but con- 

 sciousness and hearing remained almost to the end. The sense 

 of drowsiness increased ; he seemed unable to resist an over- 

 powering desire to sleep. All our attempts to keep him awake 

 proved vain ; and the instant he yielded to sleep, he was dead. 



He died in my tent. I had the body removed to a 

 grass-hut to be buried in the morning by his co-religionists 

 according to their burial rites. The grave was dug the same 

 night by torchlight. The body was wrapped up in a clean 

 white cotton cloth, so that it looked like a mummy. In the 

 morning it was buried, a large white cloth being held as a 

 cover over the mouth of the grave, on the floor of which a sort 

 of deep gutter had been prepared to receive the body facing 

 towards Mecca. A number of short sticks, placed slantingly 

 against one side of the pit, formed a sort of inclined roof 

 over the body, this was covered with grass, and, finally, some 

 wet earth was spread over the grass. The pit was then 

 filled up, a mound raised over it, and four sticks stuck at the 

 four corners. The mourners repeated some verses of the 

 Koran, probably a burial formula, holding up their hands as if 

 reading from some imaginary book. Some water was sprinkled 

 .over the grave, and the mourners went through gestures sug- 

 gestive of washing their hands and faces. 



Then the signal was given to march. We left Ferhani in 

 his lonely grave, and the busy duties of another day claimed 

 our attention. Yesterday he marched by my side in perfect 

 health, to-day he had dropped out of the ranks. He lay cold 

 and still, and another had taken his place. Four tiny punctures, 

 mere pin - pricks, and yet in a few hours he was snatched 

 from among the living ! What an emphatic illustration of the 

 saying, that we are " fearfully and wonderfully made " ! 



Crocodiles. — Ascending the Shire river in 1893, our stern- 

 wheeler stuck on a sand-bank. In anticipation of such an 

 event, apparently of common occurrence, extra natives had been 

 shipped aboard. It was their duty to jump into the river and 

 pull the vessel into deep water again. Only a few yards from us 



