Note 50 — Chapter X · SECOND JOURNEY TO THE WEBBE SHABÉLEH RIVER, 1893

The people here played a characteristic pleasantry upon me. I found it difficult to buy a sheep, and had quite given up all hope of getting mutton for my men, when one was at last driven up to my tent; the owner of the sheep said he had heard I wanted one, and that having been some distance off he could not come till now. I bought the sheep for two pieces of cloth. Half an hour later its throat began to swell up, and my men showed the marks where it had been bitten by an abéso, a very poisonous snake, whilst grazing. Half an hour later it was dead, its neck having swollen to a tremendous size. By this time, of course, the owner of the sheep had vanished!