Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/188

142 First Footsteps in East Africa. the effects of Jilal, 1 the worst of travelling seasons in Eastern Africa. The quantity made use of in the second experiment was too great to allow a fair deduction to be made as to its properties. When a fourth to a sixth of the quantity was employed in the third experiment the same effects followed, but with rather less rapidity ; death resulting in the one case in ten, in the other in sixteen minutes, although the death in the latter case was perhaps hastened by the loss of blood. The symptoms more resemble those produced by nux vomica than by any other agent. No apparent drowsiness, spasms, slight at first, beginning in the neck, increasing in intensity, extending over the whole body, and finally stopping respiration and with it the action of the heart. Experiments first and fourth show that a moderate quantity, such as may be introduced on the point of an arrow, pro- duced no sensible effect either on a goat or a rabbit, and it could scarcely be supposed that it would have more on a man than on the latter animal ; and the fifth experiment proves that a full dose taken into the stomach produces no result within a reasonable time. " The extract appeared to have been very carelessly prepared. It contained much earthy matter, and even small stones, and a large proportion of what seemed to be oxidized extractive matter also was left undisturbed when it was treated with water : probably it was not a good specimen. It seems, however, to keep well, and shows no disposition to become mouldy." i The Somal divide their year into four seasons : 1. Gugi (monsun, from " Gug," rain) begins in April, is violent for forty-four days and subsides in August. Many roads may be traversed at this season, which are death in times of drought ; the country becomes "Barwako " (in Arabic, Rakha, a place of plenty), forage and water abound, the air is temperate, and the light showers enliven the traveller. 2. Haga is the hot season after the monsun, and corresponding with our autumn : the country suffers from the Fora, a violent dusty Samun, which is allayed by a fall of rain called Karan. 3. Dair, the beginning of the cold season, opens the sea to shipping. The rain which then falls is called Diarti or Hais : it comes with a west-south-west wind from the hills of Harar. 4. Jilal is the dry season from December to April. The country then becomes Abar (in Arabic, Jahr), a place of famine : the Nomads migrate to the low plains, where pasture is procurable. Some reckon as a fifth season, Kalil, or the heats between Jilal and the monsun.