xi ON SAFARI TO THE NORTH 133 



chief, who did the honours of the locality and kindly 

 brought us some much-needed firewood. During 

 the latter part of the march, B. had been com- 

 plaining of pain in his foot, and I now found that he 

 was suffering considerably from inflammation. 



Abbudi happened to be standing by while I was 

 making an examination, and was equal to the occa- 

 sion by suggesting a certain Masai cure, which con- 

 sisted of a poultice of hot cow-dung. I decided to 

 give it a trial, principally because I remembered 

 reading in the memoirs of the late President Kruger 

 how on one occasion, when he had amputated his 

 thumb with his pocket-knife, he removed the in- 

 flammation and saved his life by placing warm on 

 the wound a somewhat similar poultice made from 

 the contents of the stomach of a goat. Unfortu- 

 nately, the remedy recommended by Abbudi did 

 not in this case have much effect, but a hot 

 fomentation which I applied proved more effica- 

 cious. 



We were glad to leave this somewhat dreary 

 camp early on the following morning and march to 

 Fort Hall, which we reached without any incident, 

 save that a porter ran away on the road. Fort Hall 

 is so called after the official who built it in the 

 early days of the Protectorate, when I had the 

 pleasure of knowing him. He was a most lovable 

 man, with a thorough knowledge of the Kikuyu 



