SEMBODJA'S WARNING 



73 



down near me, and began talking about the Masai, and the 

 dread he was in from them ; after which he proceeded to beg. 

 I cut him short at once, told him to produce the two grey 

 donkeys he had promised me, and which had cost me dear 

 enough already. 



'Sembodja declared that he could not send to Taveta for 

 the goods waiting there for me, so I had to spare Qualla to 

 fetch them in the evening. It appeared, moreover, that my 

 valuable stock of brandy and wine had been tampered with, so 

 that I did not feel disposed to have anything more to do with 

 the Sultan. Quite early the next morning, however, just as I 

 was getting up, Sembodja himself appeared in my camp, this 

 time with a turban on his head, a coloured cloth about his 

 loins, and wearing a jacket decked with different kinds o 

 buttons. About his neck hung the watch I had given him ; 

 in the buttonhole of the jacket a soup-spoon was stuck, as a 

 flower might be ; whilst from the pockets peeped the necks of 

 empty bottles. One of the men with him was also dragging 

 along a basket quite full of the latter. 



'After Sembodja had watched me performing my toilet with 

 apparently great interest for some time, he began to tell me 

 that he had been warned in a dream that we were all soon to 

 be attacked with small-pox, and he had turned out early in 

 the morning to tell us of a cure he knew of. " To begin with," 

 he said, " you must let three of your men eat a white hen ; then 

 seven must eat a black one ; then you must shoot a guinea- 

 fowl, and divide it amongst all your men." This wonderful 

 recipe Sembodja offered me with the greatest solemnity, and 

 then he began to beg, chiefly for brandy and medicine ; so, to 

 get rid of him, I had all his bottles filled with water, sat down 

 to breakfast, and gave orders that the camp was to be broken 

 up at once.' 



Wandering along the swampy districts at the base of 



