TRAVELLING UNDER DIFFICULTIES 



some settlements of natives where the "ndui" had 

 claimed its victims. After a few weeks I noticed a 

 small, dark pustule on my left hand. I thought it came 

 from using arsenic in preparing the skins of animals. 

 When I showed it to my taxidermist, Orgeich, he calmly 

 said, " Small-pox." One of my men had caught the dis- 

 ease, and they had kept him out of my sight in order 

 not to frighten me. I had him isolated and speedily 

 cured. 



Another source of annoyance is dysentery, especial- 

 ly when a whole caravan is infected with it by drinking 

 impure water from some stagnant steppe pool. 



I have suffered from it twice myself and know how 

 difficult is a thorough cure and how easy is a relapse. 

 No wonder that it is dreadsd far more than malarial 

 fever. It may break up an expedition if it occurs in a 

 violent form. "Amekufu, Bwana!" (he is dead!) the 

 leader of the caravan often reports of a patient. The 

 best thing to do is to change the drinking-place as 

 quickly as possible. Often nature will cure where the 

 physician's art fails. One of my best carriers fell ill 

 and was treated by two European doctors who were, 

 for a time, with my caravan. Finally he refused to 

 take their drugs, and after a fortnight he was well 

 again. 



Malaria is another enemy to man on his travels in 

 East Africa. My men were suffering from it more fre- 

 quently near the caravan roads and in settled districts 



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