102 TKAVEL, ADVENTUKE, AND SPOKT. 



to village in search of her husband. Considering 

 that, in ten years, Mrs Pagell had seldom seen a 

 European, it was only to "be expected that she should 

 be a little flustered and at a loss what to do ; but her 

 kindness was genuine, and I was greatly indebted 

 to her. 



I had hoped, by this time, to be leaving the 

 Valley of the Shadow of Death, its rock heat and its 

 ever-roaring torrent, but had to remain in it for a 

 month longer, lying on my back. I reached Pii on 

 the 4th July, and Mr Pagell did not arrive until 

 the 25th of the month ; so that for three weeks, and 

 during the critical period of the disease, I had to be 

 my own doctor, and almost my own sick-nurse. Only 

 those who have experienced acute dysentery can knoAV 

 how dreadfully trying and harassing it is ; and the 

 servants of the heroic Livingstone have told how, in 

 the later stages of it, he could do nothing but groan 

 day and night. Then the ipecacuanha, which I had 

 to take in enormous doses before I could contrive to 

 turn the disease, kept me in a state of the greatest 

 feebleness and sickness. The apricot-trees afforded 

 grateful shade, but they harboured hosts of sand-flies, 

 which tormented me all night, while swarms of the 

 common black fly kept me from sleeping during the 

 day. There were numbers of scorpions under the 

 stones around, both the grey scorpion and the large 

 black scorpion with its deadly sting, of the effects of 

 which Vambery has given such a painful account. 



