148 
SOMALILAND 
the sack which did duty for a door, a stream of light was 
let in, which disclosed a kind of bed raised on sticks, upon 
which lay an enormous man with a most repulsive face. 
Someone let the sack fal]. back, and we were in darkness 
once more. 
At last they poked up a little fire on the mud floor, and 
the man lying upon the bed stretched out his hand, which I 
shook. The poor fellow was evidently very ill, and probably 
dying in this mud-hole, which had no ventilation whatever. 
He pointed wdth a long, thin finger to a corner in the hut, 
and on turning round I perceived the old man who had 
treated me so well. He begged me to be seated, and, seeing 
nothing to sit down upon, I sat down upon the dirty floor. 
I asked my old friend how the invalid was, and he replied, 
‘ Dying. ’ I sent my shikari home for some more pills and 
some mustard leaves, and sat in silence in the hut until he 
returned with them. After examining the sick man by 
the feeble light of the fire, I clapped a mustard plaster 
on his chest, and sat down again upon the floor. About 
ten minutes afterwards the sick man half sat up, and began 
to roar and gesticulate. ‘ What does he say V I asked my 
shikari. He replied : ‘ He wants the devil removed !’ 
Whether he meant me or the mustard plaster I don’t 
know, but after a great deal of salaaming and shaking of 
hands, I shortly afterwards took the hint and bowed 
myself out. 
How glad I was to get out of that dark and dismal hut, 
and away from that agonized face, and to once more 
breathe pure air ! As I passed between the huts, all the 
Abyssinian women came out to have a look at the white 
man, and I must say they wwe a much better-looking lot 
than the Somali women. 
As I was walking up to my camp, a poor little chap ran 
after me, saying that the others had taken from him the 
tiny bits of antelope meat he had been able to snatch, and, 
showing his cut hands, began to cry bitterly. This hard 
little worker (he could not have been more than seven 
