XVII CAMPING AT EL BOGOI 393 



this I had heard a lion roaring one night not very far away, a 

 very unusual thing here ; indeed I don't think I had ever heard 

 one before near El Bogoi. 



My hand had been in such a state that I began to fear 

 mortification ; it was swollen out of all shape — the swelling 

 extending up my arm and the pain into my side — and turning 

 black ; but about this time it took a more hopeful turn, great 

 quantities of matter were discharged from both palm and back, 

 with corresponding abatement of pain. But it was the mere 

 wreck of a hand, undermined about the base of the fingers with 

 tunnels penetrating from front to back, through which daylight 

 could be seen — an utterly useless member so far as grasping 

 power was concerned — and the arm, now the swelling had 

 abated, shrunken to half its natural size. During the whole of 

 this time I wrote my diary with my left ; and so quickly can 

 one adapt oneself to circumstances, that, whereas the first iow 

 days are hardly legible, in three weeks I had attained such 

 proficiency as to be able to write almost as neatly as with the 

 right, though of course not so fast. 



I was in this crippled state, then, when, a few days after 

 Juma's return from Mthara, I sent him with two or three others 

 to collect moss in the " subugo " for stuffing donkey-pads. The 

 distance to the top of the mountain was considerable, and as 

 it would take some time to gather sufficient moss from the 

 trees in the forest, they could not get back till the succeeding 

 day ; so that I was left with only three or four men in the 

 camp. 



I slept in a shed, open at one end, behind which was the 

 one containing our stores, and a few yards beyond that again 

 the kraal or " boma," a circular enclosure of thorny branches, in 

 which the donkeys (some two dozen) were shut up every night ; 

 a little to one side were the cook's shanty and two or three 

 huts belonging to the other men. One of my principal donkey- 

 men and " askari," named Maftaha, who was in charge of the 

 stores, and whose duty it was to count the donkeys every night 



