XVII 
CAMPING AT EL BOGOI 
393 
this I had heard a lion roaring one night not very far away, a 
very unusual thing here ; indeed I don’t think I had ever heard 
one before near El Bogoi. 
My hand had been in such a state that I began to fear 
mortification ; it was swollen out of all shape—the swelling 
extending up my arm and the pain into my side—and turning 
black ; but about this time it took a more hopeful turn, great 
quantities of matter were discharged from both palm and back, 
with corresponding abatement of pain. But it was the mere 
wreck of a hand, undermined about the base of the fingers with 
tunnels penetrating from front to back, through which daylight 
could be seen—an utterly useless member so far as grasping 
power was concerned—and the arm, now the swelling had 
abated, shrunken to half its natural size. During the whole of 
this time I wrote my diary with my left; and so quickly can 
one adapt oneself to circumstances, that, whereas the first few 
days are hardly legible, in three weeks I had attained such 
proficiency as to be able to write almost as neatly as with the 
right, though of course not so fast 
I was in this crippled state, then, when, a few days after 
Juma’s return from Mthara, I sent him with two or three others 
to collect moss in the “ subugo ” for stuffing donkey-pads. The 
distance to the top of the mountain was considerable, and as 
it would take some time to gather sufficient moss from the 
trees in the forest, they could not get back till the succeeding 
day ; so that I was left with only three or four men in the 
camp. 
I slept in a shed, open at one end, behind which was the 
one containing our stores, and a few yards beyond that again 
the kraal or “ boma,” a circular enclosure of thorny branches, in 
which the donkeys (some two dozen) were shut up every night ; 
a little to one side were the cook’s shanty and two or three 
huts belonging to the other men. One of my principal donkey- 
men and “ askari,” named Maftaha, who was in charge of the 
stores, and whose duty it was to count the donkeys every night 
