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&mdas............