Thankful to leave such a place, their guide led them next day to the village of Kawinga, whom they describe as a tall man, of singularly light colour, and the owner of a gun, a unique weapon in these parts, but one already made useless by wear and tear.  The next village, N’kossu’s, was much more important.  The people, called Kawende, formerly owned plenty of cattle, but now they are reduced:  the Banyamwesi have put them under the harrow, and but few herds remain.  We may call attention to the somewhat singular fact, that the hump quite disappears in the Lake breed; the cows would pass for respectable shorthorns.[38]

A present was made to the caravan of a cow; but it seems that the rule, “first catch your hare,” is in full force in N’kossu’s pastures.  The animals are exceedingly wild, and a hunt has to be set on foot whenever beef is wanted; it was so in this case.  Safene and Muanyasere with their guns essayed to settle the difficulty.  The latter, an old hunter as we have seen, was not likely to do much harm; but Safene, firing wildly at the cow, hit one of the villagers, and smashed the bone of the poor fellow’s thigh.  Although it was clearly an accident, such things do not readily settle themselves down on this assumption in Africa.  The chief, however, behaved very well.  He told them a fine would have to be paid on the return of the wounded man’s father, and it had better be handed to him, for by law the blame would fall on him, as the entertainer of the man who had brought about the injury.  He admitted that he had ordered all his people to stand clear of the spot where the disaster occurred, but he supposed that in this instance his orders had not been heard.  They had not sufficient goods in any case to respond to the demand; the process adopted to set the broken limb is a sample of native surgery, which must not be passed over.

[Illustration:  Kawende Surgery.]

First of all a hole was dug, say two feet deep and four in length, in such a manner that the patient could sit in it with his legs out before him.  A large leaf was then bound round the fractured thigh, and earth thrown in, so that the patient was buried up to the chest.  The next act was to cover the earth which lay over the man’s legs with a thick layer of mud; then plenty of sticks and grass were collected, and a fire lit on the top directly over the fracture.  To prevent the smoke smothering the sufferer, they held a tall mat as a screen before his face, and the operation went on.  After some time the heat reached the limbs underground.  Bellowing with fear and covered with perspiration, the man implored them to let him out.  The authorities concluding that he had been under treatment a sufficient time, quickly burrowed down and lifted him from the hole.  He was now held perfectly fast, whilst two strong men stretched the wounded limb with all their might!  Splints, duly prepared were afterwards bound round it, and we must hope that in due time benefit accrued, but as the ball had passed through the limb, we must have our doubts on the subject.  The villagers told Chuma that after the Wanyamwesi engagements they constantly treated bad gunshot-wounds in this way with perfect success.