MY COMPANION'S ILLNESS. 



233 



with shouts and yells, from the village, declaring that 

 they were going home. In sore tribulation, Said bin 

 Salim and the Jemadar begged me to take an active 

 part, but a short experience of similar scenes amongst 

 the Bashi-Buzuks at the Dardanelles had made me 

 wiser than my advisers : the African, like the Asiatic, 

 is naturally averse to the operation proverbially called 

 "cutting off one's own nose;" but if begged not to do 

 so, he may wax, like pinioned men, valorous exceedingly, 

 and dare the suicidal deed. I did not move from my 

 hut, and in half an hour everything was in statu quo 

 ante. The porters had thrown the blame of the pro- 

 ceeding upon the blow, consequently a flogging was 

 ordered for Said bin Salim's " child," who, as was ever 

 the case, had been flagrantly in the wrong ; but after 

 return, evading the point, the plaintiffs exposed the 

 true state of affairs by a direct reference to the bul- 

 lock. Thus the " child" escaped castigation, and the 

 bullock was not given till we reached Rubuga. 



At Hanga my companion was taken seriously ill. 

 He had been chilled on the line of march by the cruel 

 easterly wind, and at the end of the second march 

 from Kazeh he appeared trembling as if with ague. 

 Immediately after arrival at the foul village of Hanga 

 — where we lodged in a kind of cow-house, full of 

 vermin, and exposed directly to the fury of the cold 

 gales — he complained, in addition to a deaf ear, an in- 

 flamed eye, and a swollen face, of a mysterious pain 

 which often shifted its seat, and which he knew not 

 whether to attribute to liver or to spleen. It began 

 with a burning sensation, as by a branding-iron, above 

 the right breast, and then extended to the heart with 

 sharp twinges. After ranging around the spleen, it 

 attacked the upper part of the right lung, and finally 



