CHAPTER XIX.

MESSRS. JAMES AND PHILLIPPS START ON A VISIT TO RASALULU—CURIOUS WAY OF SHAVING CHILDREN’S HEADS—A DISGUSTING BASé—THE CAMEL-DRIVERS BECOME MUTINOUS—INTENDED ATTACK BY BASé—WE FIRE THE COUNTRY AND MAKE A ZAREEBA—ENCAMP AT WO-AMMA—TROUBLE AGAIN WITH CAMEL-MEN—LIONS DISTURB US—ARRIVAL AT HEIKOTA—A TALE OF BLOOD AND SLAVERY.

February 14th.—Made a rather short march, and encamped at Aibara, on some table-land by the Mareb. Ere doing so we had to clear away a quantity of mimosa bushes and young palms; then construct a zareeba. Mr. Phillipps, at the request of one of the Basé, shot a monkey to-day. This was skinned and eaten by them in the evening, and was, no doubt, looked upon as a delicate morsel, probably as much so as grouse or partridge is with us.

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February 15th.—This morning, at 9 a.m., Messrs. Phillipps and F. James went off to Amadeb, to complain to Rasalulu, a deputy of King John of Abyssinia, about our late attack, and endeavour to get their rifles back. Whether they ever succeeded in doing so I don’t know; but I should think probably not.

To-day we lost another camel; this makes the sixth we have lost in the Basé country. A camel is a particularly stupid kind of animal, and does not seem to know what is good for him, or rather, what is bad for him, for he will frequently eat a very poisonous green-looking shrub, called “heikabeet.” This appears to produce considerable pain, and, as far as I could make out, inflammation of the intestines. I brought some of it home with the intention of having it analysed, but somehow or other it has got lost.

February 16th.—The Basé women and children, when we first came here, were rather shy, and ran away from us as if we were monsters of iniquity; now they appear to be getting quite tame, and are continually hanging about the camp. The heads of the children are curiously trimmed, according to fancy, just as they are at Kassala. All kinds of fantastical devices are arranged, with the aid of a razor, just as a gardener operates on a box bush in[232] England. I have seen a child’s head shaved completely, with the exception of a tuft of hair just over the right temple; another will have a tuft on each side, whilst a third will have those and one on the crown in addition; another will have several other little islands, and another a tuft running from the forehead to the back of the head, just for all the world like a clown in a circus, and so on.

Ali Bacheet to-day injured his foot with an axe. I bathed it, and whilst getting a bandage one of the Basé diligently employed himself in sucking it, then rinsed his mouth two or three times with the bloody water which had washed his foot. This I thought was a somewhat nasty proceeding, but I did not waste my breath in expostulating with these men of primitive habits.

Five tetél were shot to-day. In the evening our men with the dhurra from Amadeb returned.

February 17th.—Last night our camel-drivers, with their singing, and hy?nas howling and laughing, much disturbed our slumbers. This morning the Basé here were very uneasy in their minds, being under the impression that we had sent to Amadeb for Turkish soldiers. However, I think we made them believe—what really was the case—that Messrs. James and Phillipps had gone to lay a complaint about the Dembelas.

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Just after dinner, whilst we were sitting round the camp fire smoking the pipe of peace, the camel-men whom we had hired at Kassala came in a body to us, saying they wanted to return to Kassala, stating as a reason that they were afraid of the Basé and Abyssinians, they being so few in number. We gave them distinctly to understand that we were neither afraid of them nor the Basé; for the latter we had plenty of bullets if they interfered with us, and for our camel-drivers who did so we had the coorbatch, and so we dismissed them to chew the cud of reflection.

Two tetél shot to-day by Messrs. Colvin and A. James, and several beautiful birds by me. We are passing a very peaceful and calm existence at present, little to do except to amuse ourselves as fancy dictates. Some go out on horseback in search of antelopes or buffalos; I generally content myself just here with taking out a shot-gun after breakfast, prowling round in quest of some of the beautiful plumaged birds which are so numerous, and in the afternoon write up my diary and prepare letters for post. After that read one of the many interesting books which we have until 6 p.m., when we all have our evening bath, just before dinner, which was always ready at 7 p.m. After dinner we sit round the camp fire and chat over the social[234] pipe, when some go to bed, and I skin and prepare my birds to bring home.

We had a capital library with us, and were never short of most interesting works, such as Macaulay’s Essays, Sir Samuel Baker’s “Nile Tributaries,” Trollope’s, Dicken’s, Thackeray’s, Disraeli’s, and other works.

February 18th.—A young baboon and a small monkey were captured yesterday; this day they are quite tame, allowing us to stroke them without exhibiting any signs of fear. Unfortunately the young baboon had been injured in the thigh by a spear which severed the muscles, causing the wound to gape very much. The flies annoyed him so much that I determined to put him under chloroform, and bring the edges together by means of two or three silver sutures. I therefore put him on the table, where he lay as quietly and sensibly as any human being, looking up at me with his nice brown eyes in a very human-being like kind of way. He almost seemed to say, “I know it is for my good, doctor; don’t hurt me more than you can help, and be quick about it.” He took the chloroform very well, and when complete an?sthesia had been produced I relinquished the post of chloroformist to an assistant, with suitable instructions. He, however, was so intent in watching the operation that sufficient[235] air was not admitted with the an?sthetic, the result being that just as I had finished putting in the last suture our poor little friend looked to all appearance dead. I at once set up artificial respiration, but to no purpose—the vital spark had fled.

Two Basé sheiks from Kokassie visited our camp to-day. They had a short pow-wow both on their arrival and departure. They kissed our hands profusely—overdid it, we thought; we were apt to look with suspicion on an excessive manifestation of friendship.

February 19th.—Just after breakfast I picked up my gun, intending to take a stroll in the neighbourhood, when Elongi, the Koolookoo Sheik, taking hold of my arm, led me to Beyrumfi, to whom he communicated some important information, which he in turn communicated to Suleiman in Arabic, and the latter to me thus—

“You not go out this morning, doctor. The Sheik, he say, 300 or 400 bad Basé have come about the mountains by us, and they come bym-bye to kill us all.”

I regret to say that Suleiman’s indignation caused him to indulge in profane language, and he expressed a strong wish to know “What the d—l dese black rascals meant. We find them plenty meat; we give plenty presents to them; we kind to them always,[236] and now dey want to kill us all.” Then, turning abruptly to Beyrumfi and a cluster of Basé, he opened a box full of rifle cartridges, and very angrily said, “Tell dese black d—s, and dey can tell de other Basé, that we will give them some of dese bullets, and that we kill one, two hundred of dem in five minutes.”

Beyrumfi translated this pleasing intelligence to his hearers, who, in due time, I dare say, passed it on. Elongi and his men swore they would stick to us, and I believe they would; but for all that we did not allow any Basé to sleep within our zareeba. We had become rather lax in the matter of zareebas lately, and had not constructed one here; but I need hardly say that on hearing this all in camp were soon set in motion, I remarking what a fine field this would be for Mr. Gladstone to indulge in his tree-felling propensities. He would have found some ebony trees well worthy of his grand old arm.

We had a great deal of very fatiguing work for hours, not only in cutting down and dragging in a sufficient number of trees to form our zareeba, but also in felling young palm trees just round the camp. When all this had been completed the country was set on fire. This quickly spread for miles. In the midst of it all Messrs.[237] James and Phillipps returned from Amadeb much surprised at the activity in camp. We soon gave them all the news, and I cannot say that we were altogether surprised at the information we received in the morning, as we had observed a good many camp fires in the night—all over the hills—where no camp fires should be.

February 20th.—Last night we went to bed, leaving sentries posted round the camp, and well prepared to give a good account of ourselves should the Basé have conceived the idea of attacking us. Perhaps Suleiman’s timely admonition and explanation respecting the penetrating power of our bullets deterred them; at all events we were not attacked, which was satisfactory both to us and the Basé. Had they done so, I computed that with our 22 rifles and guns, and about a dozen revolvers, protected by our strong zareeba, we could have polished off about 100 of these poor savages every five minutes, which would have been no satisfaction to them or us. Looking at the matter again in another light, had they come in sufficient numbers, or laid siege to the camp, we should inevitably have gone to the bad, which would have been a decided inconvenience to us, to say the least of it. Our comrades informed us that when they arrived at Amadeb they heard that our late disaster had been[238] telegraphed to Kassala, Cairo, and, of course, to England. I then felt glad I had sent a true version of the affair to England, knowing full well that wild reports, of a most unreliable character, were more likely to get abroad than true ones. From my youth up I have remembered the story of the three black crows; also that David once made a very pungent remark, “I have said in my heart all men are liars,” and Carlyle, “There are so many millions of people in the world mostly fools.” However, respecting the latter remark, I should say that—speaking from experience—they are frequently not such fools as they look. The former remark was rather a sweeping one, not quite adapted to the present day.

To-day we moved on to Onogooloo, about two hours beyond Koolookoo. On passing the latter place Elongi and many of the Basé remained behind, but his father, a quiet, peaceable-looking old fellow, came on with us. This was a short march of about seven hours only.

February 22nd.—This day, after a march of about six hours, we arrived at our old camping placed, called by the festive name of Wo-amma, familiarly known as Whoa Emma. There we found that, within the past 12 hours, quite a drove of elephants had been past, and, of course, we were so unfortunate as to miss them. The Basé are thinning[239] off, but Elongi has rejoined us to-day. To-day my rifle barrel was so hot at 5 p.m. that no one could grasp it.

February 23rd.—Breakfast at 7 a.m. On the march at 10, and encamp at Gebel-Moussa at 5.40 p.m. En route we observed a large tract of country on fire, and suddenly came upon a herd of buffalos, which raised a tremendous cloud of dust. Of course we gave chase for a short distance, and of course did not get near them, for they can go at a tremendous pace.

February 24th.—Life is more enjoyable, if we have some difficulties to overcome occasionally, and succeed in doing so; and if we do not, perhaps (speaking as a philosopher) it is better than having a quiet run of prosperity. To-day, like the past few days, has been warm, 95° in the shade. Our journey was short, namely, from 10 a.m. till 1.15 p.m., encamping at Abion. En route we came across many elephant tracks, a lion and lioness, and after that a lion, lioness, and three cubs, but did not succeed in bagging any of them, but three tetél, a nellut, gazelle, and two bustards were shot. The latter are remarkably fleshy, and very good eating. Seldom a day passed without tetél, nellut, gazelles, maarif, mehedehét or dick-dick being shot. The latter is a beautiful little antelope of the smallest[240] kind. I shot many very small, beautifully plumaged sun-birds to-day—less than half the size of wrens—but only managed to bring two or three of them home, as the shot, small as it was, blew them all to pieces; they ought really to be shot with sand.

It became known in camp that we purpose to-morrow cutting across country for the river Settite, or Tacazze, amongst the Hamran or sword-hunting Arabs, via Sarcella. In consequence of this we were told (just before dinner) that after that meal we should receive a deputation of camel-drivers and horse-boys to enter a protest against this plan. Accordingly, just after dinner they came in a body, saying that nothing would induce them to pass the village of Sarcella, as the Basé there were bad people, and they had just heard that they had sworn to spear every man, woman, or child of the Beni-Amirs that they encountered, on account of the raid which Sheik Ahmed had made on them the other day, just after he left us on our march into their territory. This was the first news we had of his performances there. They said that after making “aman” with the Basé, he speared three or four hundred of the men and took all the women and children as slaves. We reproved them for their cowardice, saying that they were not old women or children, they had their spears and shields, whilst we[241] had rifles and revolvers, and were strong enough to make a two days’ march through their territory, instead of one day. Our arguments were fruitless; they were quite willing to go with us from Hiekota to the Settite, but they would not, on any account, pass by Sarcella. We, therefore, made a virtue of necessity, and gave up the idea.

February 25th.—To-day we encamped at Toodloak, having made a journey of seven and a half miles. I captured a chameleon on the road. Panthers rather disturbed us last night, and at 4 a.m. a hy?na close to my tent exercised his risible faculties so much that I, not seeing exactly where the laugh came in, got up and saluted him with a shower of stones. About 5 a.m. lions were heard; some of us got up and went in quest of them, came within about 40 yards of one, but he turned off into the jungle when he caught sight of us. However, during our stay in the Basé country 18 buffalos and about 60 antelopes, besides other game, were shot by members of the party. We could easily have secured elephants had we remained long enough and followed them up, and many more buffalos and antelopes had we remained longer in the country, and, of course, giraffes and ostriches. The only rhinoceros, or tracks of one, we did not find until we reached Abyssinia. I have not enlarged much on[242] hunting scenes, fearing that my book would become bulky, and that the generality of my readers would scarcely care to read a repetition of such scenes.

February 26th.—Heat getting great, 94° in shade to-day. Another 7? hours brought us to Heikota. There we found quite a heap of letters, papers, and periodicals from England.

The contents of the letters were, of course, greedily devoured by us all, and as for the newspapers and periodicals, they furnished enough of news for days. Although many of them were fully two months old, the contents were new to us.

About an hour after our arrival Sheik Ahmed appeared and received us literally with open arms, at the same time kissing us on either cheek. This I could have put up with under different circumstances, but I must say this mode of salutation is not acceptable to me. We found from Herr Schumann that the wildest rumours respecting us had reached them—five had been killed by the Abyssinians, two taken prisoners and put in irons, all our men killed, whilst our camels and everything else had been annexed. The Sheik says that had he known of the attack in time he would willingly have put 1,400 men in the field at once to assist us. He gave us an account of his revenge on the Basé at Sarcella after he left us, but there were some unpleasant[243] little details which he prudently omitted, thinking probably that they would shock our English susceptibilities. The particulars Herr Schumann furnished us with.

His tale was this—When the Sheik left us to join his men at Sarcella they had about 500 of the Basé in a cave; the Sheik arrived there quietly, beseiged them for about 10 days, of course cutting them off from water and food.

During this time they ate their goats and sheep raw, quenching their thirst with the blood of these animals. Finally the only course left open to the beseiged was to place themselves at the mercy of their merciless conquerors; so, driven by hunger, thirst, and the smell of their dead, they crawled out, weakened by want, in threes and fours. All the men to the number of about 300, were speared on the spot, whilst about 200 women and children were taken into captivity and sold as slaves, realizing 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 dollars each. About 30 remained unsold on our arrival; these I saw next day. All the cattle, sheep, goats, dhurra, and everything else the Beni-Amirs could lay their hands on were seized. Now we could understand why the idea of passing through or by Sarcella was so repugnant to our men. I have many patients to attend to, who literally appear to hunger and thirst after my pills and medicine.