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At a little before 5 A.M. I started on my solitary but powerful horse, "Jamoos," accompanied by Lieutenant Baker and Colonel Abd-el-Kader, with a few soldiers of "The Forty". Gimoro and Shooli, who were renowned hunters, were always with me when shooting.
The grass was fit to burn, and the bunting season had fairly commenced. All the natives now devoted themselves to this important pursuit. The chase supplies the great tribe of Shooli with clothing. Although the women are perfectly naked, every man wears the skin of an antelope slung across his shoulders, so arranged as to be tolerably decent.
The men of Shooli and Fatiko are the best proportioned that I have seen; without the extreme height of the Shillooks or Dinkas, they are muscular and well knit, and generally their faces are handsome. The women were inclined to a short stature, but were very strong and compact.
Abou Saood having as usual sworn upon the eyes and head of the Prophet to do all that was right and virtuous, and the natives throughout the country being confident of protection, I prepared for the journey to Unyoro a distance across the uninhabited prairies of seventy-eight miles from Fatiko, due south. Our excellent and trusty friend Shooli was to be our guide.
It was singular, that throughout the great Shooli country, of which Fatiko is simply a district, while the women are perfectly naked, the men are partially clothed with the skin of an antelope, slung across the shoulders, and covering the lower part of the body life a scarf. In other countries that I had passed, the men were quite naked, while the women were more or less covered.
I gave orders to Gimoro and Shooli to prepare carriers for the journey to Unyoro. An untoward occurrence had taken place shortly after our arrival at Fatiko.
I was not present on that occasion, but I have frequently admired the pluck of the Shooli natives, who attack every animal with the simple hunting-spear, which of course necessitates a close approach. On 30th December I went out with a few natives on the Fabbo road, simply to shoot in order to procure meat for the camp.
They had accordingly combined to attack the station at night, and had set fire to the straw huts, by shooting red-hot arrows into the inflammable thatched roofs. These calamities had happened since the arrival of Abou Saood in the Shooli country, and it was he who had given the order to attack the Umiro. His own people, being naturally superstitious, thought he had brought bad luck with him.
This was just twenty-five miles from our camp at Lobore, in latitude N., by observation, 3 degrees 43 minutes. We happened to arrive at the spot where the river Atabbi joined the Asua. At this junction the Atabbi was perfectly clear, while the Asua was muddy, which proved that heavy rain had fallen in the Madi and Shooli countries, while the weather was dry in the mountains of Obbo.
We were so short of meat that I began to feel the necessity that first turned the hand of savage man against the beasts of the forest. The chase throughout the Shooli country was carried on as a profession, and was conducted by general rules under an admirable organization. The favourite method of hunting was by means of nets. Every man in the country was provided with a net of strong cord.
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