My wounded servant was so weak that he had to ride on a mule. Count Salimbeni had, however, by careful treatment, stopped the bleeding and put him in a fair way to recovery, though he was still very weak.
I reached Feyambiro on the same day, being entertained by the Shúm, Basha-Gisáo; and while encamped here I had a curious adventure, probably unique in the annals of camping out. I was, as usual, sleeping on the ground inside a Cabul tent. After nightfall I was awakened by a disturbance going on outside, men running to and fro through the camp and shouting. I ran out and could see nothing at first, it being a dark night, and the only forms visible were those of my men and camels, which loomed out against the sky, and they seemed to be all rushing about wildly. At my tent door I found Adan Yusuf, who said a Bertiri bull had gone mad and had broken loose from a cattle-shed in the village, and was charging about through my camp knocking over everything in its way. It had already knocked over two men. Presently the bull rushed past me; I could just make it out, but soon lost its form among those of the running men. I jumped out of the way, and in another charge, having made a circle among the camels, he came straight back full tilt into my tent! All the men rushed for the tent, and I followed, and heard cries inside. Coming up, I saw an Abyssinian soldier run at the tent door with a drawn sword, and then there was a confused jumble of shouting men and the bellowing of the bull. Some one at last produced a torch, and a curious scene was disclosed. The bull had charged through my tent and entangled his head in the closed back of it, which had been firmly laced up; and Adan Yusuf had run in and caught him by the horns. The Abyssinian soldiers had then hamstrung him with sabre cuts and had cut his throat, so that he had fallen upon my bedding, a pool of clotted blood from his throat standing an inch high, covering my pillow, blankets, and all my kit. Taking hold of his hind leg they had then dragged him out by the front door, carrying the blankets along with him.
The curious part of the adventure was that with all this disturbance of my kit, two spring candlesticks with their glass globes, which had been rolling about under the bull’s feet, were uninjured!
On the 23rd I marched to Hado, and was again the guest of Abadigal. We then marched to Jig-Jiga, where I rejoined part of my caravan which I had left behind during the Harar visit. After waiting here for two days to reorganise my expedition, I started for the Jerer Valley on my way to Ogádén and the Webbe.
♂ Sœmmering’s Gazelle (Gazella sœmmeringi).
Length of horns on curve, 16¾ inches.
