46 



AT NYEMPS 



buffalo, as, if tlie vertebral column is struck, the result is 

 immediate. If not, however, the shot is wasted, and on 

 January 27 a bull which had threatened the men only fell after 

 receiving four bullets in the neck. Of course Count Teleki 

 gained daily in experience in hunting buffaloes, and he became 

 also daily more convinced that these animals are as crafty as 

 they are ungovernable when once they are enraged. 



All this time I was chained to my bed, dysentery, accom- 

 panied by low fever and insomnia, having completely exhausted 

 my strength, so that on January 24 there seemed no hope of 

 my recovery. On the evening of that day I felt a strong 

 desire for sleep, and, thinking that my worn-out spirit was about 

 to be loosed from my emaciated body at last, I closed my weary 

 eyes, convinced that I was falling into my' last long uncon- 

 sciousness. I woke again about four o'clock the next morning, 

 but it was a long time before I realised that I was still alive, 

 and I asked myself again and again. Where am I ? Am I really 

 not dead yet ? Then I remembered that the Count had stood 

 by my bed the evening before, asking me how I felt, and I 

 had answered, all hope having left me, that I was near my end. 

 After that a grey veil had shrouded everything from me, and I 

 had died. 



But how was it now ? Had I indeed woke in eternity ? 

 But surely that was a cock crow I heard ! Was I to live after all ? 



For a long time I could not believe it, and yet when I called 

 to Chuma he appeared. I kept repeating ' Boy ! ' in a doubtful 

 manner, and he replied ' Bwana,' so that I began to feel it must 

 be true and no dream. 



Convinced at last that I was still alive, I began to hope I 

 might yet recover, and thought I would take some of the 

 medicine I had lately regarded as useless. I now took four 

 grams (one drachm) of ipecacuanha, a little too much perhaps, 

 for the result was extraordinary. I began to tremble all over 



