DEATH OF SIM, THE DONKEY 



167 



caravans make up all kinds of grotesque costumes, in which 

 they disport themselves when the}^ get home, imitating the 

 dances and songs they have learnt from the natives. A per- 

 formance of this kind was given in our honour, and, of course, 

 we had to pay for the treat with a considerable baksheesh. 



After the play the traders brought a man to us who had 

 been mauled by a crocodile in crossing over the Eonga several 

 weeks ago. The poor fellow's arm was in a dreadful condition, 

 as the wound had not been properly seen to. Count Teleki did 

 the best he could, cutting away the hanging flesh, &c., but he 

 told his patient he had little hope of his ever being able to 

 use his arm again. However, we heard later that he quite 

 recovered power in his arm. 



On May loth we started again, and an hour's march 

 brought us to the Mayleja, a tributary of the Eonga, which flows 

 past Yon der Decken's camp of Malago tembo, and forms the 

 northern boundary of Little Aruslia. The road led amongst 

 the native plantations, chiefly of potatoes and maize, with 

 bananas only near the river. We crossed the water where 

 piles of wood had been placed, forming an incomplete bridge. 

 We filled up the worst gaps ourselves, and passed over almost 

 dry-shod. The river was about twenty-one yards wide at the 

 ford, but shallow, and with only a slow current. The crossing- 

 was effected in an hour and a half, and we camped on the other 

 side in dense bush. Here, alas ! we lost our third and last 

 riding donkey, named Sim, or Lightning, which died, as had the 

 others, after a few hours' suffering only, from the bite of a fly. 



Six hours' march the next day, for the two first hours along- 

 side of a thicket of bush rendered swampy by the late heavy 

 rains, and for the remaining four across a barren sandy steppe, 

 brought us to the forest of Kahe, which we found, to our relief, 

 not nearly so dense as that at Taveta. It was haunted by 

 numerous monkeys of the species known as the Colobus guereza, 



