Fire and Sword in the sudan - a personal narrative of fighting and serving the dervishes, 1879-1895 (1898) (14797459923)

Identifier: fireswordinsudan00slat (find matches)
Title: Fire and Sword in the sudan : a personal narrative of fighting and serving the dervishes, 1879-1895
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Slatin, Rudolf Carl, Freiherr von, 1857-1932
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Edward Arnold
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive



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ery-thing they wanted, with the result that the inhabitantsdreaded their approach, and at once tried to hide all theyhad. I thanked the Sheikh for telling me this, and promisedI would do all I could to rectify the evil. At sunset we reached Bir Gowi, which was a military postgarrisoned by some one hundred and twenty irregulars undertwo chiefs—Ahmed Katong and Gabralla—who told me theyhad sent out spies to ascertain Haruns movements, but theythought he had not yet descended from Jebel Marra intothe plains ; so, thoroughly tired and sleepy after my longjourney, followed by the two days hard marching, I wentto bed ; but my head ached, and the incessant beating ofdrums in my honour kept me awake all night, and thefollowing morning I felt really unwell. Ahmed Katongcame to see me, and I told him I had a bad headache.* We can easily cure that, said Ahmed cheerfully. ■ I havea man here who can stop headaches at once ; he is a muchbetter man than the doctor at Dara—indeed, there is no
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A Rizighat Warrior. RESIDENCE IN DARFUR 25 doctor at Dara ; he is really only an apothecary, with thecourtesy title of doctor. * All right, said I; but how is he going to cure me ? 1 Oh ! it is very simple, he answered. ■ He places bothhis hands on your head, and repeats something ; then youget perfectly well—in fact, better than you were before. Then let him come at once, I cried. I was young and ignorant in those days, and I thoughtthat possibly one of these wandering Arabs might havevisited Europe and learned something of the magnetic cure,and had given up the pleasures of life in order to make him-self useful to mankind. I confess to feeling a little mis-trustful when I thought of what Ahmed had said ; but then,after all, doctors in Europe speak, so why should not he ?In a few minutes Ahmed ushered into my presence a talldark man with a white beard, who appeared to be a nativeof Bornu, and introduced him as * the doctor who will cureyour headache. Without a moments hesitation,