XIV RETURN TO LAKE RUDOLPH 331 



In the absence of any surgical aid, the heahng of my 

 wounds had to be left to nature, acting on a healthy constitu- 

 tion and seconded by cleanliness and water- dressings, while 

 my ribs had to set themselves. For weeks I hardly slept, 

 and it was two months before I could lie in any position 

 except on my back. Sometimes even that caused me such 

 agony that I had to be propped up all night in a sitting 

 posture ; but without any pillows or cushions, or an easy- 

 chair, I soon got too sore to endure that either. Still the 

 healing process went on gradually ; the hole in my arm had 

 closed without any trouble, and though the muscle did not 

 join quite evenly, through the severed parts being somewhat 

 displaced, it was well by about the middle of the second 

 month. My side was more troublesome, the internal injuries 

 causing suppuration with much discharge and all the disagree- 

 able consequences, rendered particularly trying by the swelter- 

 ing heat, day and night, which increased as the year grew older. 



By the end of the first month I was so sick of the shut-in 

 camp at Kere, and had such a longing for a change of scene, 

 that, feeling so far better as to be able to stand being carried, 

 I determined to be taken back to the lake. On my journey 

 hither I had noticed, in the Reshiat district, a sandy ridge with 

 a {q.\v scattered trees, overlooking the lake at a part where it 

 was open water, and I longed to be there, in the more airy 

 situation, with the sea prospect and the birds and game to 

 interest me. Besides, I hoped soon to be able to pot some- 

 thing, if only doves ; for I began to feel the need of something 

 more substantial than a milk diet to recuperate my wasted 

 strength and fill out my shrunken limbs. I explained my 

 plans to Abdulla, and told him I had confidence that I should 

 pull round much more quickly if I could only get back to the 

 shores of Bassu ; so a stretcher was prepared, and twelve of 

 the best porters told off to carry me in relays, two at a time, 

 in it slung from a long pole. They performed their task most 

 zealously and ably ; leaving on 5 th February, we reached the 



