260 



THROUGH TURKAISTA AND SUK 



The men had already shouldered their loads and were only- 

 waiting to resume our march for the pack-animals, which were 

 being laden in the thicket near, when we suddenly heard a 

 terrible, ear-splitting cry from one of the donkeys. Some 

 natives had killed it quite close to us and slipped away before 

 any of the men noticed them. The poor creature had two 

 deep gaping spear-wounds and was quite dead when we found 

 it, but in spite of a vigorous search we could not catch its 

 murderers, and had to go on, leaving the corpse behind. We 

 halted again towards sunset beneath another poscho-tree. 



The first part of our fifth march was partly along the bed 

 of the stream and partly through the grass, of the height of a 

 man, on its banks. We then left the actual channel and 

 wandered to and fro, following its zig-zag southerly course 

 till we at last reached its junction with the equally dried-up 

 bed of another stream. During the march the Count shot a 

 wild boar and Kharscho two small crocodiles, so that the menu 

 was a little varied to-day. The pangs of hunger had cured the 

 men of their daintiness, and wild boar and crocodiles, together 

 with the undigested fish in the stomachs of the latter, were all 

 eagerly devoured. Donkey's flesh, however, still remained 

 liar am, or forbidden. 



When we woke the next morning we found, to our great 

 astonishment, that the bed of the river had become filled with 

 water during the night, rain having fallen in the region of its 

 source, as if on purpose to supply our needs. 



The next day's march brought us near Ngaboto, a little 

 agricultural Turkana settlement, but we did not actually reach 

 the most northerly village, Kisimay, until the next morning ; 

 that is to say, after seven days' march along the Trrawell. The 

 wildest excitement prevailed as soon as the starving men 

 caught sight of the waving, half-ripe corn. Without a murmur 

 they had marched for nine days with scarcely any food but 



