376 
DEATH OF “MOUSE: 
[chap. IX. 
moisture. In tlie evening it was always necessary to 
keep a blazing fire witliin the hut, as the floor and 
walls were wet and chilly. 
The wet herbage disagreed with my baggage animals. 
Innumerable flies appeared, including the Tsetse, and 
in a few weeks the donkeys had no hair left, either on 
their ears or legs; they drooped and died one by one. 
It was in vain that I erected sheds, and lighted fires; 
nothing would protect them from the flies. The 
moment the fires were lit, the animals would rush 
wildly into the smoke, from which nothing would 
drive them, and in the clouds of imaginary protection 
they would remain all day, refusing food. On the 
16th of July my last horse, Mouse, died; he had a very 
long tail, for which I obtained a cow in exchange. 
Nothing was prized so highly as a horse s tail, the hairs 
being used for stringing beads, and also for making 
tufts as ornaments, to be suspended from the elbows. 
It was highly fashionable in Obbo for the men to 
wear such tufts, formed of the bushy ends of cow’s- 
tails. It was also “the thing” to wear six or eight 
polished rings of iron, fastened so tightly round the 
throat, as to almost choke the wearer, somewhat re¬ 
sembling dog-collars. 
On 18th July, the natives held a great consultation, 
and ended with a war-dance; they were all painted in 
