FIGHT WITH MIDGANS 
T3S 
us, and it soon became apparent that we were walking into 
a thunderstorm. It suddenly burst upon us with a terrific 
downpour of rain, the first rain we had experienced for 
thirty-six days. 
In five minutes after parting wfith the intense heat, I 
was shivering with cold, wet through and through. As 
we were obliged to wait for the camels to come up, I sat 
under the partial shelter of some trees for two whole hours. 
The lightning seemed to run along the ground all round us, 
and hiding my rifle under a bush, I kept at a respectful 
distance from it, expecting, nevertheless, to be struck at 
every moment. The camels at last coming up, and the rain 
ceasing, we pitched camp, when I was very glad to change 
into dry clothes. Shortly after rain fell again in torrents, 
which so soaked the whole of my kit that next morning we 
were obliged to wait until 9 o’clock before we could load up. 
Some of the camel-men now gave a lot of trouble, and 
attacked, for some unknown reason, a party of Midgans 
whom they happened to meet. I was ahead of the caravan 
at the time, when I beheld the Midgans running hard after 
us. We stopped, and, loading our rifles, awaited events. 
They dropped their bows and poisoned arrows, and, walking 
boldly up to us, showed us a man with a tooth knocked out, 
and another with a spear-hole through his hand. I waited 
until the caravan came up, to discover if what they alleged 
was true, as the Somali is always a champion liar when he 
thinks he can make a little backsheesh. I found out that 
it was about six of one and half a dozen of the other, and 
there seemed to have been a considerable fight, in which my 
men had with difficulty held back their fire. I ultimately 
settled their disputes and marched on, lecturing my men 
well, in spite of their swearing that they had been first 
attacked by the Midgans. Shortly after this I caught my 
donkey-boy brutally ill-treating one of the donkeys, so I 
had him tied up to a tree, and gave him a thundering good 
hiding with a whip made of a rhinoceros hide. 
After passing a large village called Bertira, which possessed 
